Matt C, Jay A, and I observed the Ekalaka supercell/tornadoes from inception from the south. Our chase route was the state route #323 from Alzada, which was a beautiful drive watching the atmospheric convection unfold. Ultimately, the storm we had monitored to our due west for the longest time during our drive north… took its vitamins and became an incredibly sculpted supercell updraft with large, menacing wall cloud to the southwest of Ekalaka. We approached Ekalaka and upon arrival noticed the first tornado, a slender trunk with full condensation to the ground for like 15-25 seconds or so. This tornado dissipated, and we continued to the north side of town on hwy #7.
We watched the next two tornadoes from this vantage point. The 2nd was a slender truncated cone about 1/2 to the ground… then as the tornado cyclone continued to stretch, the next tornado was more or less a large truncated cone. We could not discern any debris cloud, but our observations certainly indicated that this was a tornado. Roger Hill saw some brief debris clouds, apparently, as his group observed from farther north on #7. We had no good options east so we blasted north to Baker where we ran into Roger and his tour group and also Adam Houston. It was good to see you guys! The complex became linear with a few embedded mesos/notches until the whole thing became more or less a big bow thing on approach to Bowman, ND. Great structure day with our first Montana tornadoes!
Supercell thunderstorm southwest of Ekalaka, MT
Tornado looking west-northwest from the northside of Ekalaka, MT
Beautiful supercell updraft with truncated cone tornado in the background
Photos at http://www.underthemeso.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=2005jun06
This morning Jay, Matt, and I are in Spearfish, SD at the same motel and the same room as we were at last night. Looks like we will be heading east and slightly south of here today for more fun in southern SD/far northern NEB?