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The tornado, though wider, was weakening, and it was incorporating a lot of dust and dirt. After about two miles, or halfway to the Interstate, I turned the Pathfinder around for a quick look. Yikes! A wall of blackness was rapidly descending upon us. There was almost zero contrast. We knew that there was a tornado in there, but this storm looked like something from the Kansas Dust Bowl Days. Plumes of dust were zeroing in on us. The storm was turning outflow dominant, and these chasers needed to get away fast!
We bailed eastward on I-90, south on U.S. 81, and east to Canistota. A new supercell was in the works south of the Spencer storm, which spawned tornadoes (which we never saw) near Alexandria. The sirens were wailing in Canistota, where storm core and severe outflow appeared ready to converge with the vertical storm tower to the west-southwest. Our visit to Canistota was very brief. We surged south and east again (on Highway 42) to avoid the ugly jaws. It was getting dark, and I wanted to be as far away from this double-headed monster as I could! New tornado warnings were issued for towns just behind us, lightning streaked through the mammatus in front of us, and I just held on tight and flew eastward against the strong inflow.
I called Martin after we rode out a core in a motel parking lot in Sioux Falls. He and Keith were out of harm's way, south of Sioux Falls. I stepped into the motel, and found the lobby and hallway filled with folks, many of whom were quite distressed. The lobby television showed an endless stream of radar loops and warning scrolls, and we learned that Spencer had been struck by the tornado we had seen.
Martin and Keith found Cheryl and me at the motel, and we searched for an open restaurant in Sioux Falls. It was celebration time! Our chase was a tremendous success! On the restaurant television, however, the news was becoming increasingly disheartening. There were fatalities in Spencer. Our meal didn't taste so good all of a sudden.
It was a scary evening for many South Dakotans on this Saturday, and it was a roller-coaster ride of emotions for my friends and myself. Four storm chasers, who started the day in southwest Nebraska and wound up between Salem and Spencer in southeast South Dakota, caught a storm that they will never forget. Sadly, six souls from Spencer were caught in a storm they will never remember.
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