Day Nine We logged 588 miles from Grand Island, NE to Murdo, SD. It was a long day chasing storms that didn't really produce much. The end of the day made it all worth it, though when we got to see an amazing full-arc double rainbow, and some absolutely breathtaking mammatus. We also saw, hands-down, the strangest thing I've ever seen: laminar vorticies. We went into chase mode just after 10am CDT, heading after a decent looking storm. Unfortunately, there just wasn't enough moisture available yet and every potential updraft we were seeing just piddled out a short time later. We spent most of the day waiting. Zach had a guitar, so he was working on a storm chasing song for us. Eventually some nicer storms began to pop, so off we went. First real storm of the day Virga (aka premature evaporation, lawl) Nice shot of the storm Virga, again Driving towards the storm As we came out of the one storm, we could see another one off the in distance. Looking at a storm from underneath a storm Textbook looking supercell in the distance And here are the laminar vorticies. They look like weird spaceships. When they first formed, there were only two, but a little while later there were 5-6 all in a circle around what looked like a hole in the sky. This was a definite 'wtf' Wider shot of the vorticies Aliens, anyone? Mother Nature wasn't done with us yet! We punched a relatively weak supercell, and this is the sight that greeted us on the other side... Double rainbow! How scenic... Ragged mammatus lit by the setting sun The sunset Van 2 & mammatus The day ended when we arrived back in Murdo, SD around 11:30pm CDT.