One Helluva Severe Weather Weekend – South Dakota May 29 and 30.

Waiting for Locusts

Two weeks ago, a derecho with a haboob feature rolled through eastern South Dakota. I took some killer video and wrote a blog posts about it. Watch below if interested. Watching that wall of dusted that turned day to night was definitely a unique experience. Hopefully I only experience it once.

For this next round of storms, we had almost a week warning, a clear indication to how strong the system was. Generally a very bad sign if the storm prediction center knows there will be tornadic storms five days prior to the weather event, and is confident it will last for days. During the summer, I check the NWS Severe Weather Outlook map every day. Especially if we have outdoor plans. We check rain and wind if we are grilling.

The weather experts were correct. Based on the prediction, we grilled on Saturday instead of Memorial Day. Sirloin steaks with chimichurri, cantaloup, brats and grilled carrots. We also made some ice cream, trying out our new ice cream churn. Low wind, no bugs…it was lovely.

Saturday night, actually early Sunday morning, I am awake, because I know what is coming. Hail. One of my biggest garden fears, as there is little I can do. I watch the storm come in from the west, paying sad attention to the large hail reports that follow its path. This storm announced its arrival with the low loud THUD of very large hail on the roof. The lower the sound, the bigger the hail and this impact was loud and low.

Then the rain arrives. Torrential. And more hail. I look out the window and during lightning flashes, I see what look like shiny baseballs in my yard. Not a ton of them, thank all the gods, but enough to worry about my plants, the car, the roof. Hailstones begin to melt right away and I was curious about how large these really were. Yet the lightning is constant. Running out to grab some hailstones for a photo-op would have been stupid on an epic level. So I wait til the worst of the storm passes. I took some video of the lightning and feel blessed that a tornado warning on the storm wasn’t until it passed over most the city. The rain lightens and the east is bathed in lightning daylight. I run out to grab a few hail tones. Biggest I have ever seen.

I went back outside with the camera for an initial damage check of the car (it’s fine) and to see how much hail we received. There was a large hailstone every few feet. I collect a few.

It’s almost 5 AM, so I finally go to bed. I sleep during the day because I know we are due for another round overnight tonight and I’ll likely be awake.

I was.

2 AM this time, another storm arrives. The wind on this one is wicked. I’m worried about the baby peaches I noticed on my peach tree. It’s the first year the tree gave us fruit, so I’d be incredible sad if we lost them all. I open the patio door and take a minute of video of the wind and the tomato supports I put up on Saturday with 8 ft bamboo stakes. The winds are 60 MPH and they aren’t even budging. Tornado sirens come on.

We are already downstairs, so I check location of the circulation, it’s east of us, where I have been filming. I doubted I caught footage of the any tornado as it would be rain wrapped but I filmed a few seconds of the wind since I already made sure we are all safe.

Those bamboo stakes get a very good review.

It’s 4 AM until I can get to sleep, storms having passed a while ago. Spend the afternoon watching the third round of storms fire and then advance toward our city. A tornado watch had been issued, so we were watchful. The storm hits in the late afternoon this time. Heavy rain for about fifteen minutes, a smattering of small hail pops against the house. the storm passes over, on its march to the east. I go outside to check things out, and lose power at that moment. From the after-storm winds.

Power was out for an hour and a half on our side of the city. Some people on the east side of town still were out of power from the storms earlier in the morning. We did some reading (I am reading Shogun again), chilling until the lights came back on. Honestly, I am super impressed with our power company. We had a weekend of high sustained winds, large hail, downed trees. Also heat, so the AC units were going all weekend. On our side of town, the power didn’t even blink through all of it, and we didn’t lose power until it was all said and done. Xcel energy got power back up before nightfall and we received text updates throughout. Blessed!

Our city took a straight up beating this weekend. I am very glad we grilled out Saturday afternoon instead of Memorial Day. Memorial Day is a somber day for me, not a Happy day. I’d rather “celebrate” on a typical sunny afternoon than on Memorial Day itself.

Damage? My first blooming iris, the dark purple.

That’s it.

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