Cresting the last of the big high spots and roadcuts on US-87, before plunging down–valley toward Grass Range, revealed an awesome early-afternoon sight of great promise, only available in brief, truncated glimpses beforehand. This fine young supercell had erupted over the Judith Mountains northeast of Lewistown, headed for the open grasslands that gave the nearest town its name. Its overshooting top blasted mercilessly through a very brief pileus cap—a feature neither present when I first lifted the camera nor when I quickly darted back off the road seconds later. With eastward motion along and off the mountain range, it didn’t take long for us to maneuver ahead of it on the grass range. Alas, this first storm of the day turned to mush after crossing the road to our north, only to yield another, far longer-lived one, forming where its outflow boundary crashed southward into the Little Snowy Mountains, unseen at left.
8 SSE Grass Range MT (9 Jun 16) Looking NW
46.9092, -108.7421Storm on the Range
Cresting the last of the big high spots and roadcuts on US-87, before plunging down–valley toward Grass Range, revealed an awesome early-afternoon sight of great promise, only available in brief, truncated glimpses beforehand. This fine young supercell had erupted over the Judith Mountains northeast of Lewistown, headed for the open grasslands that gave the nearest town its name. Its overshooting top blasted mercilessly through a very brief pileus cap—a feature neither present when I first lifted the camera nor when I quickly darted back off the road seconds later. With eastward motion along and off the mountain range, it didn’t take long for us to maneuver ahead of it on the grass range. Alas, this first storm of the day turned to mush after crossing the road to our north, only to yield another, far longer-lived one, forming where its outflow boundary crashed southward into the Little Snowy Mountains, unseen at left.
8 SSE Grass Range MT (9 Jun 16) Looking NW
46.9092, -108.7421