Mat Weekly and myself had just returned to Mat's home in Mina, SD after a day of planting a wildlife "food plot" near Cresbard, SD.

On our drive home, we had noticed some storm clouds, and got into a discussion about storm chasing, including the ideal vehicle to have, places to go for good perspectives, etc.

While unloading the equipment, we heard the "civil defense" siren start up. Since the sky was clear above us, we thought it was probably just a test, but I went for a short walk to see if I could see any tornados anyway...

Yikes!

Mat makes it a point to always keep a camera with him for situations just like this. He snapped a few photos, then we jumped in the car for the chase.

Before we had even gotten 100 yards, we noticed one of the nearby property owners mowing some grass near the road. He and his riding mower were aimed straight in the direction of the tornado, oblivious to the scene in front of him. We stopped to recommend that he look up from his work.

We also stopped here for a few minutes to take a few more photographs, including the first two shots in this album.

The thing that struck me as most surprising was the how nice the weather was while we watched the tornado. There was blue sky above, and the portion of cloud from which the tornado descended did not in any way seem threatening.

We jumped back in the car and sped toward the tornado, hoping to get more shots. As it turns out, the tornado quickly disappeared.

We continued our drive, looking for more tornados, and trying to see if we could locate signs of the tornado's path. We didn't see any more tornados, or locate any signs of the "our" tornado's path.

The tornado had probably been eight miles or so away when we took our first pictures. We were probably five miles or less away when we took our closest photos

We returned "home", fired up the barbeque and had supper. It was a beautiful evening to be outside.