This place will see more activity for much of the summer as I am returning to Southeast Alaska for another go-round for work.

But first I gotta get there.  I’m in the middle of three day road trip to Bellingham, Washington where the collection vehicle will catch a boat to Juneau.  It’s been an awesome drive, traveling about half the length of I-90, America’s longest interstate highway.

Today was very unique because a few miles into Montana, we spotted a funnel cloud jutting from a large thunderstorm a few miles from the highway.  I was riding shotgun and was able to snap some pics when the terrain allowed.

I’ve never spotted a tornado before.  Which is a good thing, I suppose, but I always thought it’d be cool to see one in the distance while traveling out West where the visibility is long and there are no people in the way.

This little funnel was short lived, as was the intensity of the storm that produced it, and I never saw it reach the ground, making it technically not a tornado.  The weather resources I was monitoring never gave out any alerts about the storm before it waned.  The area was extremely rural so it couldn’t have been a threat to more than a couple of ranches.  I wonder if the National Weather Service even knew about this one.