Big Tornadoes And Even Bigger Snows Out West

As expected, the weather across parts of the nation got really rough yesterday.

I monitored this web cam out of Yankton, S.D. yesterday
as I watched severe storms approach the city, where some
of my relatives live. The storm weakened, leading
to this wind gust, nice sunset and rainbow
in the screen grab I captured.  

First the good news: Tropical Storm Karen is basically falling apart as it approaches the United States Gulf Coast. It will probably cause some damage, but it won't be any kind of catastrophe.

Out west, it's worse. They do things big out there, apparently.

In Nebraska and Iowa, some of the tornadoes last evening were more than a mile wide. There was quite a bit of damage, especially near Wayne, Nebraska. Knock on wood, I haven't heard of any fatalities.

I have several relatives who live around Yankton, South Dakota, in the far southeastern part of that state.

 I watched very nervously on the National Weather Service web site and a live web cam from Yankton as a tornadic supercell, with a tornado warning in nearby Nebraska, approached Yankton

Luckily, that supercell weakened dramatically just before reaching Yankton, and the Web cam from the small city showed a routine thunderstorm, some dark clouds, a nice sunset and a rainbow. Cool!

Here's a storm chase video of the tornado near Wayne, Nebraska.




Meanwhile, in the Black Hills in western South Dakota, the blizzard was incredible. Not just incredible for early October, but incredible for any season.

A photo from @Reading Reineke from Twitter, looking out
a snow blocked door from inside a Deadwood, S.D. business
during yesterday's blizzard.  

The numbers boggle the mind. It was still snowing hard in Lead, South Dakota at 8 p.m. last night when there was already 43 inches of new snow on the ground. That's not a typo. I'm talking nearly four feet.

In Rapid City, there was about 20 inches of snow, it was still snowing hard and the wind was gusting to 67 mph. Yikes!

Here's an early video out of Wall, South Dakota, but I'm sure we'll get more dramatic ones once the snow tapers off, people can drive and the power comes back on.