The big tornado at bottom center of this wide-angle, 35-mm slide had passed over the photo location about 10 minutes earlier—a glacial-era kettle lake, whipped to whitecaps by the trailing rear-flank downdraft (RFD) and strewn with small debris. The rain-diffused rays of the setting Dakota sun cast aglow the scud tags in the high foreground, as they raced southward (left-to-right) around the west edge of the mesocyclone. Dust at right was being blown southward on the inner edge of the rear-flank downdraft, but started as dirt blasted off a field by the tornado itself. The surreal, pastel beauty of this scene belied the indescribable horror engulfing the old prairie town of Spencer. Unknown to me, the tornado was in town at the time of this photo, killing 6 people and injuring half its population, with damage rated up to F4. A singular, nearly half-mile wide tornadic vortex there, it became rain-wrapped, grew to almost a mile wide, and broke down into multiple vortices southeast of town. This was the most destructive tornado in South Dakota history, our official damage survey the next day a sobering reminder of the humanity of disaster.
4 WNW Spencer SD (30 May 98) Looking ESE
43.7329, -97.6669