Light Fossil Studios: Instant Badlands Storm - #2 of 2

Trying here to document, with pictures, the rapid approach of a severe hail and thunderstorm over The Badlands of South Dakota. From the bright sunshine pictures in Part 1 to the hideous black clouds in Part 2 took approximately 10 minutes. Part 1 is the storm gathering, Part 2 is pictures taken out the car window as we fled the area. In The Badlands there is no cover; no overpasses, no gas stations, nothing for 30 miles in all directions. Drove the motorhome East at eighty mph and managed to escape the damage from the reported golf-ball-sized hail storm with 60 mph winds.

These clouds appeared from the haze that you see in Part 1. The weather went from bright sunshine to a silvery haze, to these black clouds in less than 15 minutes. If you have ever seen pictures of the ceiling of a room completely engulfed in flames, then you know what this looked like. The black clouds were roiling and churning like super-heated gasses. The air temperature dropped from 90 degrees to 40 and a 60 mile mph wind was suddenly upon us. I shot these pics out the RV window as we booked it due East and away from the heart of the storm. We managed to miss the damage that would have occured from the NOAA weather reports of golf-ball sized hail.

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