On my way home from a grueling evening of volleyball and pizza, my wife and I were curious about the light show in the southern sky. I giant cloud that looked like it came from the movie “Independence Day” was looming southward, and full of lightning. We decided to do the romantic thing and go to the top of Hillside Park to view it. I took a couple of quick photos as well.

Once I got home and got the truck in the garage, I checked the Intellicast Radar Summary to see how close it was. I was quite surprised to find that it wasn’t close at all! These clouds were still south of the ND-SD border, and the cloud tops were hitting 60,000 feet! I took a snapshot after originally typing this post, and they were just starting to cross the border (see above) and were picking up speed

With a storm cell that compact, boiling up to a height of almost 12 miles while dropping hail, we’re likely to see its aftermath on the news tomorrow. Good thing it’s not in a densely populated area right now; of course, who knows what it might do when it approaches Jamestown!