Kevin Palmer

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  • On this evening I headed up into the hills to watch lightning. The first storm that made me head out the door wasn't any good for pictures, since most of the lightning was intra-cloud. But then I watched another cell pop up to my south. As this updraft exploded into the starry sky, it started producing positive lightning strikes. Positive lightning accounts for 5-10% of all lightning, and is up to 10X more powerful than negative strikes with a peak discharge of 1 billion volts. It originates from the top of a thundercloud and travels through miles of air before striking the ground. Positive bolts can hit up to 25 miles away from the parent thunderstorm. These "bolts from the blue" are especially dangerous because people may assume they're a safe distance away from the storm when they strike.<br />
The night couldn't have been more perfect for watching lightning.A full moon helped to light up the landscape and gave the thundercloud a silver lining. I stayed in the same spot for hours as multiple storms followed the same path.
    Lightning and Moonbeams
  • On the longest day of the year, a thunderstorm came rolling through Antioch, Illinois. Lightning is a lot more challenging to capture during the day. At night you can use a long exposure of 30 seconds and try to catch a bolt of lightning in that time frame. But during the day, you have to use shorter exposure times. This storm was dark enough that I could use a 2 second exposure and eventually caught these twin strikes.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: June 21, 2011
    Day Lightning
  • For over 4 hours thunderstorms moved past Devils Tower, which was not even in the forecast. The lightning was difficult to expose for, because some flashes were super bright while others were dim. But this was my favorite shot of lightning jumping out from behind the clouds.
    Lightning Jumping Out
  • On this evening I went out for the sunset but stayed for the lightning. This is a spot close to home that I discovered last month. It's a great place to hike except for the abundance of ticks. We're at the time of year where spring progresses very quickly. Many trees seem to leaf-out almost overnight and wildflowers bloom out of nowhere. This hillside was covered in lupine, which is one of the most widespread wildflowers in North America. After the warmest day of the year, the air still felt very summer-like once the sun went down. I watched this thunderstorm go up to the east, and just waited for the first bolts of lightning to flash into the blue twilight sky. Even though it was almost 70 miles away, it was clearly visible.
    Lupine Lightning
  • A powerful bolt of lightning appears to hover over a row of houses. This midsummer thunderstorm lasted 6+ hours and produced lots of similar lightning bolts.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: June 8, 2011
    Lightning Hovering
  • This severe thunderstorm rolled across the grassland near Decker, Montana late at night. There were dozens of wildfires burning across Montana. Before this storm hit, the air was mostly clear. But the strong winds brought in thick smoke from the northwest. It smelled like there was a fire nearby, even though there were none in the immediate area. All the lightning had a reddish-orange tint to it.
    Orange Lightning
  • This was the last line of thunderstorms on the other side of the cold front. The lightning was almost non-stop. I shot it next to the North Platte River not far from I-80. This is a stack of 10 shots.
    Strobe Lightning
  • It wasn't just a good night for watching lightning, there were plenty of Delta Aquarid meteors as well. This one was particularly colorful.
    Lightning and Delta Aquarid
  • This storm rolled in on the Montana border at 8PM and was producing a lot of lightning.
    Lightning Near Aberdeen
  • A distant lightning storm moves south past the Badlands National Park. The red sky in the west was casting a soft glow on the tops of the cliffs. The black dots in the center are turkey vultures.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: August 7, 2013
    Badlands Lightning
  • On this evening I headed up into the hills to watch lightning. The first storm that made me head out the door wasn't any good for pictures, since most of the lightning was intra-cloud. But then I watched another cell pop up to my south. As this updraft exploded into the starry sky, it started producing positive lightning strikes. Positive lightning accounts for 5-10% of all lightning, and is up to 10X more powerful than negative strikes with a peak discharge of 1 billion volts. It originates from the top of a thundercloud and travels through miles of air before striking the ground. Positive bolts can hit up to 25 miles away from the parent thunderstorm. These "bolts from the blue" are especially dangerous because people may assume they're a safe distance away from the storm when they strike.<br />
The night couldn't have been more perfect for watching lightning.A full moon helped to light up the landscape and gave the thundercloud a silver lining. I stayed in the same spot for hours as multiple storms followed the same path.
    Under Jupiter
  • On this evening I headed up into the hills to watch lightning. The first storm that made me head out the door wasn't any good for pictures, since most of the lightning was intra-cloud. But then I watched another cell pop up to my south. As this updraft exploded into the starry sky, it started producing positive lightning strikes. Positive lightning accounts for 5-10% of all lightning, and is up to 10X more powerful than negative strikes with a peak discharge of 1 billion volts. It originates from the top of a thundercloud and travels through miles of air before striking the ground. Positive bolts can hit up to 25 miles away from the parent thunderstorm. These "bolts from the blue" are especially dangerous because people may assume they're a safe distance away from the storm when they strike.<br />
The night couldn't have been more perfect for watching lightning.A full moon helped to light up the landscape and gave the thundercloud a silver lining. I stayed in the same spot for hours as multiple storms followed the same path.
    The Hills Are Electric
  • On this evening I headed up into the hills to watch lightning. The first storm that made me head out the door wasn't any good for pictures, since most of the lightning was intra-cloud. But then I watched another cell pop up to my south. As this updraft exploded into the starry sky, it started producing positive lightning strikes. Positive lightning accounts for 5-10% of all lightning, and is up to 10X more powerful than negative strikes with a peak discharge of 1 billion volts. It originates from the top of a thundercloud and travels through miles of air before striking the ground. Positive bolts can hit up to 25 miles away from the parent thunderstorm. These "bolts from the blue" are especially dangerous because people may assume they're a safe distance away from the storm when they strike.<br />
The night couldn't have been more perfect for watching lightning.A full moon helped to light up the landscape and gave the thundercloud a silver lining. I stayed in the same spot for hours as multiple storms followed the same path.
    Moon Behind the Anvil
  • I couldn’t let NEOWISE leave without trying to capture it over Devils Tower. But this wasn’t the shot I had in mind. The forecast called for mostly clear skies after earlier severe weather exited. But sometimes what actually happens is so much better than what I can imagine. This supercell popped up to the west around 10PM and the anvil quickly blocked out the comet. But then just as the storm was showing its best mothership structure during a close encounter with the tower, a hole in the clouds opened up. It was perfectly placed to reveal the comet once again for just a few minutes. It’s a good thing that most of the lightning was intracloud. If bolts of lightning were jumping out they would have been too bright to expose for the comet. Every single flash highlighted or backlit a different part of the storm. While the lightning continued for most of the night, I was glad the large hail stayed away. I didn’t want to test the hailproofness of my tent.
    A Hole in the Clouds
  • This was the best lightning storm I saw all year. A couple thunderstorms passed very close, but the rain stayed out of the way. Sometimes I stack lightning shots, but this is just one exposure. The two lightning crawlers occurred about 15 seconds apart within the 30 second exposure. After chasing some storms to the south and coming back home I think I saw about 10 thunderstorms on this day. There are often deer in this field at night, you can see a couple under the bright streetlight.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: June 25, 2013
    Night Crawler
  • I wasn't expecting to be back at Devil's Tower so soon but this was an opportunity I just couldn't pass up. I spent the evening chasing a supercell past the tower to the Montana border where it dropped hail larger than golf balls. Then I headed back to the tower just in case any new storms popped up. When I got there, lightning was beginning to flash from a new thunderstorm to the west, just like I had hoped. When rain began to fall I went and stood under the back door of my car to shoot pictures. The lightning wasn't all that frequent and it was challenging to get the exposure right. In between flashes, the light level would go from pitch black to practically burning my retina. When the rain let up a little, I went and stood in the middle of the dirt road. That's when this bolt filled the sky, perfectly placed above the tower. It's certainly the best foreground I've ever had for a lightning picture and I may have cheered after it happened.
    Awestruck
  • Distant flashes of lightning kept me awake much of the night at Joshua Tree National Park. Finally at 4am, I got up to try to photograph it. I never got any bolts because the lightning was too sporadic. In this image a flash of lightning behind me lit up the rocks, while a smaller storm moves under the moon and stars.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: August 20, 2014
    Night of the Monsoon
  • With a cold rain turning into accumulating hail, and lightning striking nearby it wasn't exactly the best weather for fishing. Park Reservoir, located at 8200' in the Bighorn Mountains was just barely reachable, with snow melting off of the rough road days earlier. But soon after arriving here, this storm started brewing before noon. I took shelter in my car to avoid the nearby bolts, but left my camera outside to shoot a time lapse. Lightning is not that difficult to capture at night, but during the day it's a lot harder. With the average bolt lasting for 30 microseconds, and using a shutter speed of 1/320 of a second, the chances of capturing lightning on camera were astronomically small. But after looking at the images later, I found that my camera had somehow captured a strike on the far left. The tree that was struck can even be seen going up in flames, but the rain put it out immediately.
    Striking A Tree
  • A series of lightning bolts strike in the distance beyond Spring Lake. This storm was part of a derecho that formed over Nebraska and caused extensive damage as it headed towards Illinois. Even though this part of the storm was weaker it still displayed a nice shelf cloud and put on a great lightning show.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: June 4, 2014
    Spring Lake Shelf Cloud
  • It was a very dark night at Devil's Tower, in between lightning bolts. The lightning was difficult to expose for, since it was infrequent, and usually very bright. This was one of the dimmer bolts. I was standing underneath the back door of my car to stay out of the rain when I took this.
    Power at the Tower
  • Early in the morning a very active lightning storm passed by north of Peoria. An overlook on Grandview Drive was the perfect place to watch it approach. The overlook sits on a bluff 300 feet above the Illinois River. This is the part of the river where it widens and forms Peoria Lake. It was raining heavily with plenty of lightning bolts striking on the opposite side of the river. But from where I was it stayed dry enough to take over 400 pictures.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: 9/3/2014
    Strike Three
  • On the last day of June, 2 severe storms known as derechoes formed and moved across Illinois. After the 2nd storm passed through, it provided an amazing show of lightning. As the rain and wind ended, bolts of lightning slowly crawled across the sky, lasting up to 5 seconds. Even though it was 11pm, the field of soybeans was lit up like day.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: June 30, 2014
    Static Charge
  • Last summer I spent some 4 hours watching this thunderstorm. From the time it formed before sunset until it receded into the starry night, it was producing a ton of lightning. Even though the storm wasn't severe it provided plenty of time lapse opportunities as I shot over 1,000 pictures. The best part is I never had to go more than 30 minutes from home. This picture is a blend of 2 images since the lightning bolt struck a few minutes after the best storm structure. The old barn/shed is one of the few structures remaining at the nearby ghost town of Monarch. In the early 1900's this area was home to thousands of people, exceeding the population of Sheridan. But after the numerous coal mines closed it was mostly abandoned.
    Monarch Storm
  • All summer long I had been waiting for a storm like this one. It seems like most of the thunderstorms this year would clear out in the evening, instead of persisting into the overnight hours. But it's a lot easier to capture lightning when it's dark. At night I can use a long exposure of 30 seconds, which increases the chances of capturing lightning. This wasn't a particularly strong storm cell, it produced no more than a couple dozen strikes. But that was enough. By positioning my tripod inside my car and shooting out the window, I was able to keep raindrops off my lens. This image is a stack of 5 separate pictures. The light trail curving around on the left is from a plane coming in for a landing at the Sheridan airport. The passengers would have had quite a view out the window.
    Last Night of July
  • As this supercell tried to wrap up, it produced a lot of lightning in the same spot. Normally lightning is hard to capture during the day but it was easy this time. This is a composite of 4 images.
    The Strike Zone
  • A bolt of lightning jumps out of the gust front of a severe thunderstorm in South Dakota. This was one of my final shots before taking shelter in my car to escape the close lightning and 1.5" hail.
    Out of the Gust Front
  • After the heavy rain of a thunderstorm passed, this lightning slowly crawled across the sky. This type of lightning is amazing to watch since it lasts up to 5 seconds. The power lines above my head were buzzing at the time of this shot.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: July 18, 2012
    Electric Night
  • While my main camera took a time lapse, I used my backup camera to take a few additional shots of the lightning to the west. The lightning was very frequent and I stayed out as long as I could until taking shelter in my car. This storm brought 1.5" hail which left some dents on my car.
    The Other Side of Sunset
  • At the end of May I had the chance to get a picture I've always dreamed of taking: a rainbow and lightning simultaneously. It was a juxtaposition of calm and chaos; serenity and fury. I've seen it happen a couple times before, but had never successfully captured it. The conditions and the timing had to be just right. After chasing storms for several hours, I was almost ready to go home when the heavy rain started. But I couldn't ignore the warm glow emerging in the west, despite the incessant rain. I knew a large rainbow was likely, I just had to find a way to capture it out of the rain. So I attached my camera to the car window, and pointed east. I still had to wipe raindrops off my lens frequently, but this made it possible to shoot a few dozen frames. The two bolts of lightning occurred about 60 seconds apart, and I merged the pictures together.
    Struck By a Rainbow
  • The air felt heavy and still. As it rotated closer, this supercell seemed to grow wings. Within a couple of minutes Sundance Mountain was swallowed up by the precipation core. The 'calm before the storm' does not happen with every storm, but when it does it's very noticeable. Then a giant bolt of lightning struck out of frame, with a deafening thunder shattering the silence. An errant hailstone, big enough to leave a bruise, bounced off of the ground with a thud. It was time to move. This cell turned out to be an ice machine, piling up baseball-sized hail on the road, and making the temperature plummet which created hail fog. Chasing storms in and around the Black Hills has it's challenges. Winding roads through hilly terrain makes viewpoints limited and cell signal sporadic. But when everything comes together just right, the structure and color of the storms around here are incredible.
    Swallowing Mountains Whole
  • Earlier in the spring I came across this overlook on a hilltop with a view of the mountains to the west. I knew it would be be the perfect spot to watch a storm roll out of the Bighorns, I just needed to wait for the right storm. My first attempt didn’t yield the pictures I wanted as the cell went too far south. But the second time’s a charm. This storm intensified after I got here and started spitting out dozens of close lightning bolts. It was dark enough that I could use a longer shutter speed, and capture about 40% of the strikes that occurred. But there were many more out of frame to the right. This is a composite image showing 5 of the best strikes. By the time I left there was a small stream running under my car as well as some minor street flooding in Sheridan.
    5 Strikes
  • A supercell lurked in the darkness. Every few seconds a flash would illuminate the thundercloud and show a silhouette of the sharp spires of the Badlands. This was the 4th storm I watched this evening. Rumbles of thunder slowly grew louder as yet another storm approached from the west and threatened to block the view of this one. Badlands National Park is one of my favorite places to capture storms. Even when they’re 100 miles away, the views here are excellent. And distant storms are preferred when I’m camping. The Badlands are very exposed to the elements. There is no escaping the rain, wind, and mud. An earlier downpour soaked me to the skin but the wind that followed dried me in minutes. The mud is the type that cakes to the bottom of your shoes making every footstep heavier. But a few hours in the hot sun and the mud is baked dry. At the time of this picture tennis-ball sized hail was reported in the Pine Ridge Reservation to the south. The lights are from the metropolis of Interior, population 94. The lightning was mostly cloud-to-cloud; this was the only strike I captured out of 500 shots.
    Strike Beyond Interior
  • Just before the drenching rain started, I took one last shot and captured this bolt of lightning, reflected in Big Goose Creek.
    Electric Green
  • There are some things that just don't happen every day. One of the brightest comets in decades is swinging past Earth this month. As I brainstormed to figure out where to capture it, Steamboat Point seemed like an obvious choice. Anyone who has driven Highway 14 would recognize this iconic peak of the Bighorn Mountains. It gets its name because of the massive rock face that sticks into the air like the prow of a steamboat. Even though storms were around in the evening, I was not expecting them to last. But lightning flashed to the north for the entire night. The red color is an effect caused by viewing from a long distance through the thicker atmosphere. At 2:30AM, the comet rose above the northeast horizon, tail-first. A comet's tail always points away from the Sun. The 67% moon off to the right lit up the mountain, while shadows added depth to the scene. Soon after this, noctilucent clouds joined the show, but that's for another post. By the time the sun rose my memory card had 1400 new images. It was a night very much worth losing sleep over.
    Worth Losing Sleep Over
  • This supercell dropped hail the size of baseballs and brought a good lightning show as it got closer.
    Cloud Piercer
  • All night long lightning flashed to the north over Steamboat Point in the Bighorn Mountains. Then at 2:30AM Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE rose above the horizon. Finally as the first light of dawn came, noctilucent clouds appeared. It was the brightest display I've ever seen. Seeing all these things at the same time made it a night to remember.
    A Night to Remember
  • I had been wanting to shoot a storm rolling out of the mountains from this overlook next to I-90. But this particular storm was dying just after sunset and produced hardly any lightning.
    Dying Storm at Twilight
  • After riding out this severe thunderstorm outside of Faith, South Dakota, the conditions came together for a spectacular sunset. I stopped on this two-track road in the middle of a prairie, trying not to get stuck in the mud. Gorgeous colors filled the sky in every direction, with occasional flashes of lightning.
    Tumultuous Sky
  • This severe thunderstorm rolled across the grassland near Decker, Montana late at night. There were dozens of wildfires burning across Montana. Before this storm hit, the air was mostly clear. But the strong winds brought in thick smoke from the northwest. It smelled like there was a fire nearby, even though there were none in the immediate area. All the lightning had a reddish-orange tint to it.
    Smoky Strikes
  • A shelf cloud approaches a field of soybeans near Delavan, IL. The late evening light made the clouds a cool blue while the lightning caused a warm glow.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: June 19, 2014
    Dark Blue
  • A distant lightning storm moves south past the Badlands in South Dakota. The red sky in the west was casting a soft glow on the tops of the cliffs. This was a typical late summer evening when a thunderstorm formed over the Black Hills and moved out across the plains.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: August 7, 2013
    Stormy Badlands
  • It was a beautiful night last night. A very active lightning storm receded into the distance underneath an otherwise clear and dark sky filled with stars. Mars was shining a brilliant red above the storm, and I was just barely able to fit the milky way in the frame.
    Flashing Galaxy
  • Lightning activity picked up while I was driving so I stopped at the end of a driveway and took a few pictures until I caught this bolt.
    Electric Hills
  • This severe thunderstorm developed rapidly east of Sheridan. Usually lightning is very difficult to capture during the day. But it was frequent enough that my camera captured 3 bolts in the time lapse.
    Dusty Strike
  • Bats emerged from their hiding places and fluttered about as the rumbles of thunder drew closer. A herd of bighorn sheep and a couple of bison were grazing around me as I awaited the arrival of the storm. The sun had already gone down over the South Dakota Badlands, but the nearly continuous flashes of lightning provided enough light for my camera. The storm was advancing slowly, but once this striated shelf cloud emerged ahead of the rain core, then it picked up speed. I could hear and smell the rain before I felt it. Once the wall of water hit, the downpour wouldn't let up until 3 hours later. This perhaps wasn't the best night to be camping in the Badlands. Although my tent held up well enough with minimal leakage, the entire campground was a muddy mess the next morning.
    Badlands Shelf Cloud
  • I'm still in shock that my camera captured this. Most of the small storm had moved off to the east behind me and I thought the show was over. This was literally going to be my last shot before packing it up, and if it happened 2 seconds later, I would have missed it. The bright light behind the cloud is the first quarter moon. All the other white specks are raindrops, frozen in mid-air by the brilliant flash. The raw power dwarfed everything around and it took awhile for my eyes (and ears) to recover. I'm still not sure what was struck, but one of the forks looks like it connects with the short tower on the hill. I've tried before and failed to capture lightning from this vantage point overlooking Sheridan. But when I heard a thunderstorm rolling out of the mountains shortly before midnight, this is where I went. The covered deck at the rest area offered a little protection and helped keep the rain off of my lens.
    A Flash of Brilliance
  • After chasing storms for most of the afternoon, I ended the day by watching this storm recede into the distance over the sand hills near Torrington. The hanging pouches in the sky are known as mammatus clouds. They are somewhat rare and this was the best display I've ever seen. Mammatus clouds typically form underneath the anvil of a severe thunderstorm and are caused by sinking cold air. This storm was a cyclic supercell which produced multiple tornadoes in western Nebraska. Lightning was very frequent and I caught this bolt in one of the time lapse frames.
    Torrington Mammatus
  • A bolt of lightning strikes a couple miles away. Normally this farm field is dry, but after a very rainy week it was covered by floodwater. This storm rolled through near Spring Lake, IL.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: May 30, 2013
    Flood and Strike
  • Even after driving up Highway 14 dozens of times, I almost always stop at this scenic overlook. It’s where the Bighorn Mountains meet the endless plains stretching across eastern Wyoming and Montana. The towns of Dayton, Ranchester, and Sheridan are seen thousands of feet below and it’s a popular spot for launching hang gliders. For years I’ve wanted to capture a good lightning storm from here. But it required just the right storm, one that comes in from the northwest in a path parallel to the mountains. It needed to be close enough to light up the valley, but far enough to stay out of danger and out of most of the rain. It also needed to be predictable, so I could get there in time. At 10PM sheets of rain began to envelop the ridges to the north one by one. Then this brilliant flash illuminated the foothills and switchbacks just before the lights of Dayton disappeared into the downpour. I’ve always loved the challenge of capturing something that lasts a fraction of a second and preserving it in a picture.
    Electric Rain
  • Bats emerged from their hiding places and fluttered about as the rumbles of thunder drew closer. A herd of bighorn sheep and a couple of bison were grazing around me as I awaited the arrival of the storm. The sun had already gone down over the South Dakota Badlands, but the nearly continuous flashes of lightning provided enough light for my camera. The storm was advancing slowly, but once this striated shelf cloud emerged ahead of the rain core, then it picked up speed. I could hear and smell the rain before I felt it. Once the wall of water hit, the downpour wouldn't let up until 3 hours later. This perhaps wasn't the best night to be camping in the Badlands. Although my tent held up well enough with minimal leakage, the entire campground was a muddy mess the next morning.
    Out of the Darkness
  • On June 3rd, a derecho formed in Nebraska and moved across Iowa causing plenty of wind and hail damage. By the time it reached Central Illinois after midnight it had weakened. Spring Lake was hit by the northern part which wasn't as severe. But it still displayed some nice structure and put on a good lightning show.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: June 4, 2014
    Illuminated Shelf
  • The mammatus looked impressive on the back of this storm after sunset.
    Blue Mammatus
  • A few minutes earlier this supercell produced a tornado, but I couldn't see it from my vantage point. I thought it was going to do it again here, but there was only this funnel cloud.
    Hulett Funnel
  • Fireflies buzz around under the milky way. This picture was taken in Weinberg King State Park in Illinois. This location has the darkest skies in the state.
    Lights of a Summer Night
  • An impressive looking shelf cloud approaches north of Peoria. I was in the perfect location to watch this storm. Heavy rain fell on the other side of the Illinois River but it stayed dry where I was.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: 9/9/2014
    Grandview Drive
  • When I reached this overlook in the Bighorn Mountains, one thunderstorm was moving off to the east, while another approached from the north. This is the eastern storm, dumping rain over the lights of Sheridan.
    Raining On Sheridan
  • Lake Sugema was alive on this night with insects chirping, bats flying, and bullfrogs croaking. The green lines are from a firefly that buzzed in front of my camera. Southeast Iowa has some of the darkest skies in the midwest and the milky way was breathtaking as the stars were reflected almost perfectly on the calm water.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: June 25, 2014
    Bugs, Bats, and Bullfrogs
  • This thunderstorm popped up west of Devils Tower around 10PM. Once I got to this overlook, I could only get a few shots of Comet NEOWISE before it was blocked out by the clouds.
    It's Coming This Way
  • A distinctive anvil from a thunderstorm is visible in the west as the skies get darker. Blue Mounds State Park is a short hill on the edge of the Great Plains. It is not unusual to see distant storms such as this, even though it was about 300 miles away near the Black Hills. Many green fireflies are also visible in the grass below.
    Blue Mounds Twilight
  • In between two thunderstorms, the milky way made a brief appearance.
    Milky Way and a Flash
  • I chased this cyclic supercell from eastern Montana into South Dakota. In total, it produced 8 tornadoes. This was taken just before it dropped the last tornado of the day after sunset.
    Cyclic Supercell
  • A warm and humid wind gusted across the prairie causing the grasses and goldenrods to sway back and forth. In the distance a supercell thunderstorm spun away furiously. I knew a tornado was on the ground in Montana, but I couldn't see it until it crossed into South Dakota and emerged from behind a distant hill. The first tornado roped out after a couple minutes, but then this funnel quickly formed. It danced around, touching the ground briefly but not doing much. This was a cyclic supercell, which means it produced multiple tornadoes. As one ropes out, the wall cloud regenerates and another forms. Tornado #3 would be a much more substantial wedge that stayed on the ground for about 20 minutes. After I saw the storm's movement, I knew I could move a bit closer to get a clearer view. Sunset was minutes away and there was not much time left before it got too dark to see.
    Tornadic Buffalo Supercell
  • Sometimes I chase storms, and other times storms chase me. This beast rolled out of the Little Belt Mountains at 5PM and roared onto the Central Montana plains. It was a challenge to keep up with as it felt like I was never more than a few minutes ahead. The rollings hills provide limited spots to overlook the storm and I couldn't shoot any time lapses because there simply wasn't enough time. I tried to stay to the south of the tornado-warned portion of the storm so I wouldn't be in harm's way. While shooting this picture a rancher stopped by and I asked him if he'd ever seen anything like this. He said he had; apparently sights like this are not uncommon around here in the summer. Big Sky Country certainly lives up to its name. The central part of the state is filled with numerous island mountain ranges, and this shelf cloud swallowed them up like they were nothing.
    Beast of a Storm
  • When this evening thunderstorm popped up, I knew I had to go to Chimney Rock to try to shoot the lightning behind it. After taking over 100 pictures, I eventually caught a couple bolts. A green light shines on the rock formation all night long.
    Lightning at Chimney Rock
  • One of my goals this summer was to capture a lightning storm from the Bighorn Mountains. But it’s not easy since by the time a storm pops up it may be too late to get to the right spot. And once I’m in the mountains, lack of cell data makes it hard to know what’s happening with the weather. But storms weren’t even expected on this night. I was camping near an overlook called Freeze Out Point. At 11PM I went up to the overlook one last time and was surprised to see flashes to the east. The cell was some 75 miles away in Montana, and at that distance lightning often appears red as it’s seen through the thicker lower atmosphere. Distant lightning strikes that are silent and without thunder are often called heat lightning. But heat lightning isn’t really a specific type, thunder simply can’t be heard from more than 10 miles away. There was just enough time to shoot a time lapse of this moonlit lightning storm before low clouds and fog came in and obscured the view.
    75 Mile Strike
  • I was driving through southeast Montana when I started seeing flashes to the west.I pulled in to Rosebud Battlefield State Park to try to get some lightning shots. Most of the lightning was intracloud but occasionally a bright bolt of lightning would jump out and strike the ground, making it a challenge to get the exposure right. This is a very remote part of the state, about 35 miles from the nearest town. It was at this location in 1876 that one of the largest battles of the Indian Wars took place. The Battle of Rosebud also played a role in the defeat of Colonel Custer one week later at Little Bighorn.
    100 Million Volts
  • When the lightning rod at the top of Black Mountain started buzzing, I knew I had to descend to escape the lightning danger. But I'm glad I returned afterwards, because the  sunset was incredible. Mammatus filled the sky as the storm cleared and it took on an orange color as the sun lowered. All the smoke in the air added to the surreal atmosphere. The fire lookout structure was recently closed to the public because it's fallen into disrepair.
    Lookout Above
  • An updraft is a rising current of air that often leads to thunderstorms. The updraft of a developed storm is also the most active part with large raindrops and hailstones constantly rising and falling. As the rain and hail collide, this creates an electric field and eventually lightning. As the sun set, it gave this storm a beautiful orange color and highlighted the details and the structure.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: May 3, 2012
    Heart of an Updraft
  • I can't say I miss the very humid days and nights of Illinois. But I do miss the fireflies. Their flashing lights are nowhere to be found in drier areas out west. Fireflies (also called lightning bugs) thrive in hot and humid weather. They are typically most active in the late spring and early summer. They flash their lights in the evening before quieting down when the temperature drops. I recently spent a few hours at Spring Lake, which is a place I've gone stargazing many times. This firefly entered the frame near Mars which stood out prominently as the red planet. Mars gets slightly brighter every night until it reaches opposition at the end of July, at which point it will be the brightest it's been in 15 years. Saturn is also visible, just right of center in a star cloud of the milky way. I was a little disappointed when a breeze came up and ruined the reflection, but it did provide relief from the biting mosquitoes.
    Galactic Firefly
  • Fueled by hot, dry weather and gusty winds, it only took a day and a half for the Apple Fire to explode to 32 square miles. As the forest went up in flames, the plume of smoke ballooned to 25,000 feet. That's more than twice the height of San Gorgonio Mountain, Southern California's highest peak seen in the middle of this photo. The behavior of this fire is extreme enough to make it's own weather. Pyrocumulus is a type of cloud formed when intense heat creates an updraft similar to a thunderstorm. Pyrocumulus lofts embers high into the air, creates strong unpredictable outflow winds at the surface, and in rare cases even generates lightning. The same phenomena is seen in volcanic eruptions. All of this hampers firefighting efforts and causes the flames to expand even more. But even in the devastation, there was beauty. From my vantage point northwest of the blaze, the smoke plume took on a deep red glow at sunset before the 97% full moon rose above it.
    Pyrocumulus Moon
  • The time was after 11PM, yet still the light of sunset lingered in the northwestern sky. It gets dark quite late here in Montana in the middle of summer. This peak has been on my radar to climb for quite awhile. Like a spine, the long and narrow Bridger Range is situated in the middle of the state. The 9,665’ Sacagawea Peak, named after the famed guide of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, is the apex of the mountain range. Views stretched far and wide in every direction and were some of the best of any peak I’ve stood on. After sundown the lights of Bozeman and smaller towns came on. Then Comet NEOWISE slowly appeared through the deep blue twilight sky. Just a few minutes makes a big difference in visibility because while the coma is bright, the tail of the comet is faint even though it’s huge. After this more clouds moved in along with a couple flashes of lightning. It was time to leave, but I was thankful for the short window of opportunity I had. Descending the steep trail by headlamp was no small task. I made note of the tricky parts on my way up and was extra careful in the dark, trying not to butt heads with any mountain goats.
    Sacagawea Comet
  • I spent the fourth of July chasing tornadoes in Chugwater, Wyoming. Chugwater has a certain legendary status among storm chasers. Storms form over the Laramie Mountains to the west, and the local terrain seems to enhance tornadic potential. On at least 3 other occasions I've seen funnel clouds here. And having one of the few paved, east-west highways also makes it a great place to target. Luckily there is not much around for a tornado to damage. I had to pick a spot either below the bluff or on top. I chose on top, which put me a little over a mile away from the developing tornado. Powerful cloud to ground lightning bolts were dropping during tornadogenesis. My camera was left outside to shoot automatically while I stayed in my car.
    Chugwater Tornado
  • Over Labor Day weekend the Earth's magnetic field was battered by a solar wind stream from a coronal hole on the sun, which reached speeds of up to 800km a second. This led to the aurora dipping down to lower latitudes and I was able to catch it 4 nights in a row. I'm always in search of new north-facing viewpoints for picture opportunities. This night I spent at the top of the Judith Mountains in central Montana. Montana always has a better shot at seeing the aurora and being at a high elevation helped even more. The views reached far and wide out over the plains with more mountain ranges than I could count. As it got dark flashes of lightning were visible 250 miles away in Saskatchewan which I didn't even know was possible. The aurora danced all night long, preceded by a fiery sunset and followed by a stormy sunrise. It couldn't have been a more colorful stay on this mountaintop.
    Pillars Rising Above
  • Electric Peak in Yellowstone National Park is the highest in the Gallatin Range. It lies directly on the border of Montana and Wyoming, exactly halfway between the equator and the north pole. The 10,969 feet high peak got it's name after the first men to climb the peak were struck by lightning near the summit.
    High Voltage
  • From the first time I glimpsed Devils Tower 7 years ago I’ve been dreaming of this picture. Countless visits to this iconic monolith were all badly timed for catching the aurora. But since then I’ve explored almost every acre of the park to figure out exactly where to go when the moment was right. That right moment happened on April 23rd. Two days earlier the sun hurled a massive explosion directly towards Earth at more than a million mph. When it arrived it caused the strongest geomagnetic storm since 2005. My widest lens, which covers a field of view of 115°, was not nearly wide enough. The entire sky pulsed in green waves like lightning. The raw intensity was humbling. I could see the ground by the light of the aurora alone. Since the ice recently melted, I headed for the Belle Fourche River. The water level on the shallow waterway was high enough to provide a perfect reflection. Because it's still the off-season, the park was much quieter with less stray light compared to the summer. I don’t know how many hours of sleep I’ve lost through the years chasing this shot. But it all feels worth it now.
    Monumental Mirror
  • I got to the Crystal Creek Overlook just in time to watch this storm roll in off of the Bighorn Basin. I've always wanted to watch a storm from here and this one was perfect because there was no lightning occurring.
    Storm in the Bighorn Basin
  • After making it through the core mammatus clouds once again filled the sky on the west side of the storm. Lightning lit up the horizon as the sky got darker.
    The Hills of Sonnette
  • In front of me was a rainbow, lightning to the left, a colorful sunset behind me, and to my right were baby bighorn sheep prancing around. When the downpour ended and the sun came out, it was an overwhelming few minutes and I didn’t know where to point my camera. I was just lucky to be at this overlook in Badlands National Park. When the storm was closing in I made a bad decision to turn down a very muddy road. But somehow my car made it back out after spinning the wheels for 5 minutes. My last 2 visits to this South Dakota national park were both very short and involved waiting out heavy thunderstorms, which isn't all that enjoyable in a tent. One of these days I'll return when the weather is actually nice. But bad weather makes for the best pictures.
    Badlands Bow
  • After watching the northern lights for hours, I finally went to sleep at 3AM. Just 3 hours later I awoke to this view. It doesn’t get much better. I knew this was a risky spot to camp near the top of the Judith Mountains in Central Montana. If a storm popped up it was very exposed to wind, rain, and lightning. There was only a 20% chance of storms, but this was the lucky day out of 5. Rainbows are always biggest (84° wide) when the sun is at the horizon. The rainbow and amazing sunrise only lasted about 10 minutes. After this I hastily packed up my tent and took shelter in my car as a 2nd thunderstorm threatened behind this one. There’s a reason the Air Force built an early warning radar station on this mountaintop during the Cold War. The views out over the plains seem to go on forever, no matter which direction you look. This small but scenic mountain range north of Lewistown also contains gold deposits and two ghost towns. Even though I was still tired, I couldn’t complain. Rarely are the most memorable days the ones in which I get plenty of sleep.
    Sunrise Rainbow
  • After riding out this severe thunderstorm outside of Faith, South Dakota, the conditions came together for a spectacular sunset. I stopped on this two-track road in the middle of a prairie, trying not to get stuck in the mud. Gorgeous colors filled the sky in every direction, with occasional flashes of lightning.
    Unreal Sunset Colors
  • After driving for over 5 hours I finally reached the edge of this powerful supercell just west of Faith, South Dakota. The shelf cloud looked amazing, backlit by the sunset and spitting out lots of lightning bolts. Once the storm hit it brought 1.5" hail which left some dents in my car.
    Faith Supercell
  • After riding out this severe thunderstorm outside of Faith, South Dakota, the conditions came together for a spectacular sunset. I stopped on this two-track road in the middle of a prairie, trying not to get stuck in the mud. Gorgeous colors filled the sky in every direction, with occasional flashes of lightning.
    Two Track Heaven
  • It rained most of the morning at my campsite on Lost Twin Lake in the Cloud Peak Wilderness. The cold rain was at times accompanied by thunder and lightning, gusty winds, and graupel (snow pellets). Nearby waterfalls grew louder and the sound of a distant rock slide echoed across the lake. My plan of summiting Darton Peak would have to wait for another day. After the last rain shower, the clouds descended and obscured the highest peaks. I took this picture while enjoying a cup of hot coffee as the rain finally stopped. It's difficult to convey just how massive these cliffs are. The sheer granite walls rise 1-2 thousand feet above the lake. If you can see the white speck at the base of the cliff on the right, that is a tent. The top of this bowl-shaped valley, known as a cirque, was carved out by glaciers long ago.
    Clouds Descended
  • It had been 7 months since I've even heard thunder here in Wyoming. But early May finally brought the first decent thunderstorm of the year. Throughout the evening clouds built up over the Bighorn Mountains before the storm descended and hit Sheridan after 8PM. The high moisture content combined with late evening sunlight behind the storm gave the clouds a greenish-blue tint. The storm wasn't severe, but it brought frequent lightning, small hail, and a drenching rain that made the already flooded Big Goose Creek rise even higher. The photogenic shelf cloud ahead of the rain core showed some impressive structure as it was sculpted by wind shear above.
    Big Goose Storm
  • While camping at Garden of the Gods, I watched a storm roll through at 8am. I would have liked to make a time lapse but the storm was just approaching too slowly. A proper shelf cloud never formed, it was mostly dark scud clouds that drifted across the sky. Once the rain started falling, and the lightning started striking nearby, I quickly made it back to my car where I waited out the storm.<br />
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Date Taken: July 23, 2014
    Garden of Gods Storm
  • At the end of April, I went out to photograph severe storms to the northwest of my town. I found myself in the area of Snakeden Hollow State Park, a place that I've always wanted to check out. So I went into the park and waited as the severe squall line approached. Seconds after this was taken, heavy rain and hail started falling along with strong winds and lightning.<br />
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Date Taken: April 28, 2014
    Snakeden Gale
  • From comets, to lightning, northern lights, and meteors, I've amassed a collection of photos of one of my favorite local mountains at night. But I lacked a moonshot. The 7,877 foot peak named Steamboat Point is topped with dramatic cliffs of dolomite. You can't tell from this distance but the boulders below the cliff face are bigger than houses. Because of the position of the viewpoints, a full moon can only be seen rising over the mountain in the winter months. Unlike the sun, a full moon rises north of due east in the winter. In January it is called the Wolf Moon. While wolves do not currently live in the Bighorn Mountains, they have been seen before. The snow conditions at this elevation were highly variable with lots of bare ground as well as big snow drifts. After lining up my shot the moon failed to appear on time because a cloud hid the horizon. But after waiting and repositioning at the last minute, the moon briefly passed through a small gap in the clouds.
    Steamboat Moonrise
  • After waiting out a heavy thunderstorm at the Pinnacles Overlook, the sun began to come out. Beautiful golden light illuminated everything, a double rainbow appeared with lightning, and bighorn sheep wandered around. It was an overwhelming few minutes as I didn't know where to point my camera.
    Weathered
  • A severe thunderstorm approaches the farmland near Edgington, Illinois. This storm brought strong winds, large hail, and frequent lightning as it marched across Iowa and crossed the Mississippi River a few miles away.<br />
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Date Taken: May 12, 2014
    Edgington Squall
  • The night started out clear and quiet with the Milky Way shining brightly to the south. Then one by one the stars began to disappear, first to the north, then to the west. Flashes of light soon caught my attention, each one closer than the last. Even though I was trying to go to sleep, I could ignore the storm no longer. I went to the opposite side of the 400' high rock formation called Boar's Tusk, where I was camping. The long-dormant remnant of a volcano now came alive with a different kind of rumble. Focusing and exposure were tricky in the pitch black, but eventually I caught this double lightning strike. I felt lucky to witness rain in the Red Desert because under 10 inches falls here annually, with even less in a drought year. The parched ground absorbed the water and released the smell of petrichor. In Southwest Wyoming the Continental Divide splits to form the Great Divide Basin. So the little rain that does fall here never makes it to the ocean and mostly evaporates.
    Boar's Tusk Rumble
  • I struggled to even get my car door open as dark clouds surged across the sky. Waves moving across the grass made it look more like an angry ocean than a wheat field. It would take a dozen tries in these strong outflow winds before I could get a picture that wasn't completely blurry. The storm seemed to be saying, "eat my dust," which got in my eyes and left them irritated the rest of the day. Minutes later this mountain would vanish, gobbled up by the shelf cloud. This chase at the end of June was probably my most intense of 2019. This supercell had it all: powerful lightning, large hail, hurricane force winds and a couple of tornadoes. The cell formed slowly at first in the Little Belt Mountains of Central Montana. But once it descended onto the plains, it was off to the races. I couldn't stop for more than a few minutes at a time before being overtaken again. It was well into Canada and North Dakota before it ran out of steam the next morning.
    Dusty Outflow Winds
  • One of the most notable landmarks on the Oregon Trail, Chimney Rock towers hundreds of feet above the surrounding plains in the Nebraska panhandle. The pillar was at least 10% taller 150 years ago, but it has since been weathered down by wind, erosion, and lightning. I was glad to be able to capture some nice light at sunset on the west side of the rock formation, even though it didn't last long. The anvil in the distance is from a thunderstorm which produced a tornado nearby a couple hours earlier.
    Last Light On Chimney
  • It rained most of the morning at my campsite on Lost Twin Lake in the Cloud Peak Wilderness. The cold rain was at times accompanied by thunder and lightning, gusty winds, and graupel (snow pellets). Nearby waterfalls grew louder and the sound of a distant rock slide echoed across the lake. My plan of summiting Darton Peak would have to wait for another day. After the last rain shower, the clouds descended and obscured the highest peaks. I took this picture while enjoying a cup of hot coffee as the rain finally stopped. It's difficult to convey just how massive these cliffs are. The sheer granite walls rise 1-2 thousand feet above the lake. If you can see the white speck at the base of the cliff on the right, that is a tent. The top of this bowl-shaped valley, known as a cirque, was carved out by glaciers long ago.
    Clouds Descended B&W
  • I encountered this storm in Joliet, Montana, while driving to Red Lodge. It was spitting out plenty of lightning bolts, but I wasn't successful in capturing any.
    Storm in Joliet
  • I was in Joshua Tree National Park when monsoon thunderstorms passed by throughout the night keeping me awake. Just before sunrise it started raining. With thick clouds above I was not expecting a very colorful sunrise. But then this happened. The rising sun highlighted the wisps of rain as they fell into the dry air. The clouds cast an orange glow across the desert floor as flashes of lightning streaked across the sky. And a minute later a spectacular rainbow appeared behind me. This entire light show only lasted a few minutes so I had to rush to capture it all. It was the most awe-inspiring sunrise I've ever seen and my pictures could hardly do it justice.<br />
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Date Taken: August 20, 2014
    Raining Fire
  • A severe thunderstorm quickly approaches over a farm field. The red color underneath is from dust kicked up by the 60+ mph winds. The storm also brought large hail, heavy rain, and lots of lightning.<br />
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Date Taken: May 19, 2013
    Approach of a Monster
  • After chasing this storm past Morton, Illinois, I took this picture north of town. The mammatus clouds were boiling overhead as the shelf cloud quickly approached. I saw a couple cloud to ground lightning bolts come out of the shelf cloud. But despite how threatening it looked, the storm died out shortly after I took this picture. It was nice while it lasted.<br />
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Date Taken: June 23, 2013
    Dark Shelf
  • In front of me was a rainbow, lightning to the left, a colorful sunset behind me, and to my right were baby bighorn sheep prancing around. When the downpour ended and the sun came out, it was an overwhelming few minutes and I didn’t know where to point my camera. I was just lucky to be at this overlook in Badlands National Park. When the storm was closing in I made a bad decision to turn down a very muddy road. But somehow my car made it back out after spinning the wheels for 5 minutes. My last 2 visits to this South Dakota national park were both very short and involved waiting out heavy thunderstorms, which isn't all that enjoyable in a tent. One of these days I'll return when the weather is actually nice. But bad weather makes for the best pictures.
    End of the Storm