Severe T-Storms Chase Me To South Dakota So I Don't Have To Chase Them

I arrived in South Dakota Saturday evening for a week long visit with family.

Visibility near zero in heavy rain, hail and 60+ mph
winds during a severe storm Sunday in Yankton, S.D.  

Yes, it's the pretty much the peak of severe weather season in South Dakota, but storm chasing is not on the agenda.

I don't think my in-laws would like me to go out into the middle of nowhere to have their vehicles wrecked by hail and flying debris.

Plus, I'm not an experienced storm chaser, so anything super huge, Great Plains style is out of my league. I don't want to get hurt or endanger others through my storm chasing stupidity.

Ominous clouds over Yankton, S.D. between two
severe thunderstorms Sunday afternoon.  

So, I'm up for a peaceful week in the pleasant small southeastern South Dakota city of Yankton.

My husband and I arrived in Sioux Falls Saturday evening, and his sister picked us up for the drive south to Yankton. Near Vermillion, we encountered, YES! a nice thunderstorm.

It definitely wasn't severe, but it had some dramatic dark clouds.

Just ahead of the main storm, a huge hail shaft and apparent weak microburst or downdraft created a dramatic heavy bluish black column, decorated with a rainbow from the setting sun.

Then, during a late lunch Sundy at my in-laws' house next to a golf course, I noticed it getting pretty dark out.  I knew some strong thunderstorms had been developing just to the south, across the Missouri River in Nebraska, and they were starting to head norht.

I saw a couple in a golf cart frantically driving at top speed in the gathering gloom toward the club house, and since I knew there might be drama coming, I grabbed my camera and went into the sunroom, which is surrounded on three sides by glass.

There's a house less than 50 feet away in this still
from a video I took, but the rain, hail and wind made it
impossible to see it.  

The result was a great view of not one, but two severe thunderstorms that swept through Yankton.

The wind officially gusted to 68 mph at the Yankton airport.

In the nearby town of Mayfield, a metal building was swept into the intersection of South Dakota Route 46 and U.S. 81.

When the storm traveled up toward Sioux Falls, meteorologists there spotted a funnel cloud nearby.

Thank you Yankton and South Dakota for bringing the storms to me. There's actually another shot of strong storms possible later Tuesday.

Here's a video of the storms I took from the Modereger family sunroom in Yankton, South Dakota.  During the more dramatic moments, I heard myself saying, "I'm not in Vermont anymore."

Watch: