June 8 atmospheric cap that wouldn't budge

Look at that beast!

Mid-level funnel near Edgemont, SD

We began the day in Gering, NE, and our plan was to get up near Valentine, NE.  Model trends were showing some beefy storms firing along the SD/NE border and diving towards the southeast.  We also knew that we wanted to be closer to N Central ND for tomorrow's severe weather prospects.  In any case, we left Gering and headed north on Hwy 29. We enjoyed lunch at the Longhorn Saloon Bar and Grill in Harrison, NE.  After lunch, we continued our drive east on US 20 after lunch and arrived in Valentine a few hours later.  Our vans needed fuel, so we stopped and gave the guests a chance to stock up on some goodies before heading north on US 83 out of Valentine.  We drove to Mission, SD, and we stopped a few miles out of town to monitor the weather.  Any towers that we saw were quickly suppressed by the atmospheric cap that would not budge.  The biggest reason why storms were unable to develop was due to a lack of convergence and no southerly winds to help create storms.  In the end, this was a blessing in disguise, because we ended up in Pierre, SD for the night.  If storms would have started going up, we would have chased them south.  This would mean a much longer drive for tomorrow and an earlier start.  We drove 391 miles today.

Core with hail larger than 1"

*Note*  I did not take any pictures today, so I will post more from the Edgemont day on June 7.