Kevin Palmer

  • Portfolio
  • Time Lapse
  • About
  • Archive
    • All Galleries
    • Search
    • Cart
    • Lightbox
    • Client Area
  • Links
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
x

Search Results

Refine Search
Match all words
Match any word
Prints
Personal Use
Royalty-Free
Rights-Managed
(leave unchecked to
search all images)
Next
255 images found
twitterlinkedinfacebook

Loading ()...

  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • With severe weather in the forecast, I headed downstate to do some storm chasing. This cell formed over the Laramie Mountains before pushing east onto the High Plains. At first it took it's time maturing. But just before 4PM it transformed from an ok looking storm into this in only 10 minutes. As the storm moved into a better wind shear environment, it turned into a mothership supercell displaying very impressive structure. I was mesmerized watching it roll across the Nebraska stateline outside of La Grange. Despite the ominous and otherworldly look, the storm wasn't severe at this time. As it passed over me it brought small hail and blowing dust with lots of tumbleweeds.
    Mothership Supercell
  • 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
  • With winds blowing over 40 mph, it was not the most pleasant evening for a hike. At first it was sunny, but the weather changed quickly as a cold front blew through. A fiery orange glow appeared at sunset while rain showers moved in over the mountains. I was standing on top of Lodge Trail Ridge, a mile high vantage point overlooking the small town of Story to the west. There's a lot of history here, as this ridge sits in between Fort Kearney and the Fetterman Battlefield. The fort was established to protect travelers of the Bozeman Trail, an offshoot of the Oregon Trail which passed through Indian land. Tensions culminated in 1866 in an ambush led by Crazy Horse that killed 81 soldiers. It was the US Army's worst defeat in the West until the Battle of Little Bighorn 10 years later.
    Cold Front Sunset
  • I was hiking in the Bighorn Mountains when it started to rain and the sun threatened to peak out at the same time. It was late enough in the day to make it perfect rainbow weather, I just had to reach the top of the ridge before it happened. A 2nd shower rolled out of the mountains after I reached this view, and a partial rainbow appeared. The trail conditions were very changeable, ranging from soft thigh-deep snow, to packed ice, to mud, to dry ground. Even though the Red Grade Trail system isn't very long, I definitely had to earn the view on this day.
    First Rainbow of Spring
  • In this part of Montana there’s a whole lot of nothing. The sprawling ranches have more acreage than many towns. I’ve previously driven hours along this road east of Decker without seeing another human. You're more likely to encounter wildlife such as pronghorn antelope, which I've raced across these plains and found that they really can run 60 mph. On a warm August evening I followed this storm for awhile. The radar showed it was producing hail the size of baseballs. But since the core passed through a roadless area, any severe weather went unseen and unreported. Abandoned houses are not hard to find as they are more common than lived-in houses. By now I know where most of them are so I kept driving until I could shoot the storm above this one. When the evening sun came out it highlighted the puffy cumulonimbus clouds receding into the distance. The white containers next to the tree are bee hive boxes. I've noticed them popping up more and more across Montana as it's one of the top honey-producing states.
    Home On the Range
  • Pictured is a highly unusual weather event called a derecho. Derechos are a long-lived wind storm that may travel across multiple states and cause widespread damage. They occur a few times a year in the Midwest or Eastern US. What was unusual about this derecho is that it began in Utah at 9AM. Normally the Rockies disrupt organized storm systems, but this one had no problem plowing 750 miles all the way to North Dakota. Hundreds of wind reports ranged from 60 to 110 mph. I intercepted the squall line near the Wyoming/South Dakota border. The severe thunderstorm warning mentioned a storm motion of 100 mph which was a bit difficult to comprehend. I tried to make it to a mountaintop, but then had to go with plan B, which turned into plan C which was pretty much the side of a road off of I-90. The shelf cloud was very ominous. The air was notably calm and quiet just before it struck. One mountain after another vanished into the rain and dust. Then seconds later the wind was roaring and I couldn't even stand up straight.
    Beulah Derecho 3:1 Panorama
  • Pictured is a highly unusual weather event called a derecho. Derechos are a long-lived wind storm that may travel across multiple states and cause widespread damage. They occur a few times a year in the Midwest or Eastern US. What was unusual about this derecho is that it began in Utah at 9AM. Normally the Rockies disrupt organized storm systems, but this one had no problem plowing 750 miles all the way to North Dakota. Hundreds of wind reports ranged from 60 to 110 mph. I intercepted the squall line near the Wyoming/South Dakota border. The severe thunderstorm warning mentioned a storm motion of 100 mph which was a bit difficult to comprehend. I tried to make it to a mountaintop, but then had to go with plan B, which turned into plan C which was pretty much the side of a road off of I-90. The shelf cloud was very ominous. The air was notably calm and quiet just before it struck. One mountain after another vanished into the rain and dust. Then seconds later the wind was roaring and I couldn't even stand up straight.
    Beulah Derecho 2:1 Panorama
  • Paved roads were few and far between. Cell phone signal was non-existent. Hills and bluffs sometimes blocked the view. Mosquitoes swarmed around me and stubborn cows formed a roadblock. These are some of the challenges of chasing storms in Montana. Elsewhere crowds of storm chasers may converge on a supercell. But here it’s not uncommon to be the only one on a storm, and I feel an extra responsibility to report what I see to the National Weather Service. When everything comes together just right the supercells here can be truly incredible. This storm first went up over the Crazy Mountains before tracking east along the Musselshell River, into a part of Big Sky Country I’d never been. It was one of the roundest, most obviously rotating supercells I've ever seen. Evening sunlight snuck in underneath to turn the hail shaft gold. Just when the storm was at its most photogenic I came upon this scene of an abandoned house on the open prairie. It was exactly what I was looking for.
    Melstone Supercell
  • This dusty elephant trunk tornado dropped outside of McCook, Nebraska. It was one of many that formed from a long-track cyclic supercell. After firing on the dry line in Kansas, it tracked for nearly 200 miles. Researchers that are part of the TORUS project surrounded the twisters with a fleet of radar, drones, weather balloons, and other instruments. A NOAA P3 aircraft, which is typically used to fly into hurricanes, could be seen overhead circling this storm and gathering data. Altogether this was one of the most well studied and documented supercells yet. The tornadoes left some damage behind, including downed power lines across the road which ended my chase. But there were no reported injuries, which is always good news. Even though I wish I would have done some things differently, I'm just glad to have been there.
    Elephant Trunk Tornado
  • 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
  • I chased a few thunderstorms that rolled off of the mountains in the afternoon. It was good rainbow weather, but they can't form in the middle of the day. Since the radius of a rainbow is always 42° and the center is directly opposite the sun (antisolar point), the sun must be at an altitude less than 42°. Around 5PM, the sun sank to 32° and this low rainbow appeared about 10° above the horizon. I stopped at this wetland and was able to cover my camera from the rain and capture a time lapse clip that I've tried many times to get. The extra colors (green, purple, green) at the bottom of the bow are called supernumeraries. It's a rare effect that happens when the raindrops are a specific diameter and mostly uniform in size. This complex light interference can't be explained by geometric optics. In fact, supernumerary rainbows played a part in the early 1800's in confirming that light is a wave, and not just made up of particles as previously thought.
    Supernumerary Rainbow
  • The weather changed fast as this cold front arrived at sunset. I was lucky to make it back to my car without getting rained on.
    Mammatus Over Story
  • 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
  • Anytime I’m out storm chasing, I love finding some old structure such as a church, barn or abandoned house. Buildings that have weathered many storms, bare the scars, but still stand. This little white church I came across outside of Wolf Point, Montana. A shelf cloud was closing in from the west. It seemed to be approaching rapidly, but at the same time in slow motion. The storm stalled out over town. Excessive rainfall brought street flooding and left drifts of dirty hail on the highway. As it got closer the sky turned green, reflecting the suspended hailstones above. When the gust front finally arrived, it turned brown as winds picked up dust from the surrounding fields. A wind gust of 86mph was reported.
    Prevailing Church
  • A severe thunderstorm approaches over a corn field near Morton, Illinois. A shelf cloud can be seen on the lower left and the anvil extends to the top right.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: June 23, 2013
    Morton Thunderhead
  • 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 />
<br />
Date Taken: June 23, 2013
    Dark Shelf
  • As I came back into Sundance, the sun came out and this rainbow appeared, perfectly aligned over Sundance Mountain.
    Sundance Mountain Rainbow
  • 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
  • A wall cloud descends behind Crow Peak in the Black Hills. Not long afterwards a tornado would knock down parts of the forest.
    Crow Peak Wall Cloud
  • 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
  • Even though 2019 was a very active storm season overall, it started quite late. It was well into June before there were any thunderstorms worth chasing locally. I caught up with this long shelf cloud on the plains outside of Broadus, Montana. When air cooled by rain hits the ground, it spreads out ahead of the storm. This lifts the warmer, moist air ahead of it, which condenses into a shelf cloud. They are usually associated with strong winds and heavy rain, but rarely tornadoes because they do not have the right shape.
    Hammond Shelf Cloud
  • A vivid rainbow appeared on the other side of this storm near Crazy Woman Canyon.
    Rainbow at the Ranch
  • I had to pull off of I-90 to shoot this distant view of a thunderstorm rolling out of the Bighorn Mountains. But I nearly got stuck on a muddy road.
    Where the Rain Falls
  • 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
  • It wasn't until 7:30PM that I decided to intercept this supercell to my south. The rotation here was very apparent. It was nice seeing some of the best storm structure of the year so close to home.
    Ucross Supercell
  • 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
  • Outside of Ekalaka, Montana, the structure on this mothership supercell was incredible. At times it looked like a giant tsunami in the sky. This storm would go on to produce at least 8 tornadoes.
    Montana Mothership
  • The mammatus looked impressive on the back of this storm after sunset.
    Blue Mammatus
  • This severe thunderstorm rolled out of the Bighorn Mountains near Aberdeen, Montana. After it passed by I found 1.5" hailstones on the ground.
    Aberdeen Supercell
  • This tornado near Broadwater, Nebraska, developed almost on top of me while I was attempting to core punch the storm. At the intersection of Rd 78 and Hwy 385 I was close enough to hear the roaring waterfall sound and feel the intense RFD winds. But I couldn't see it because the storm had become HP (high precipitation) and visibility was horrible. As I fled south on Hwy 385 debris started flying past me including sheet metal hitting my car. A semi truck that I passed would be flipped over on it's side and all the sign posts at the nearest intersection snapped in half. Once I made it a safe distance away (about 5 miles) I stopped and took this picture looking north. Visibility was still bad, I couldn't see the tornado and I even missed it the first time after reviewing my pictures. But after enhancing the contrast the twister became visible in the rain shaft on the left.
    Broadwater Tornado
  • 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
  • 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
  • The remnants of a low-precipitation supercell moves past a prairie outside of Norfolk, Nebraska. This storm dropped large hail earlier on, but started to die shortly before the sun set. After watching the sun slip beneath the horizon in the other direction, I went up the road a little bit and came across this stunning sky. I was fortunate to find these purple wildflowers on the side of the road to include in the foreground. The sun sets late here this time of year, this was shot after 9:00.
    Dying Beauty
  • A dying supercell created this colorful sky as the sun set near Norfolk, Nebraska.
    Norfolk Road Sunset
  • A severe thunderstorm rolls across the hills of northeast Wyoming. This storm formed from orographic lifting over the Big Horn Mountains, before moving southeast. The curl at the base of the rain shaft is an indication that a wet microburst is occurring. Caused by evaporational cooling weakening a thunderstorm's updraft, it results in a sudden release of torrential rain and strong damaging winds in a localized area. But no damage was reported with this storm because it was in such a remote area. There are no paved roads (other than I-90), towns, or services for at least 25 miles in any direction.
    Losing the Storm
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • This severe thunderstorm rolled into northern Wyoming from Montana after 8PM. This north-facing railroad track was the perfect place to shoot a time lapse of it approaching. The NWS warned of winds up to 70 mph as the gust front passed over.
    Off The Rails
  • When I saw this strongly rotating thunderstorm heading my way, I found a hilltop near Ranchester to watch it come in. This is the first time I've seen a funnel cloud this close to home.
    Ranchester Funnel
  • On this late June day in central Montana, I didn’t think I would end up with any storm pictures. Just as the storms started firing at 5PM my car suffered a flat tire. After all the miles I’ve driven while stormchasing, it was bound to happen eventually. But thankfully this cell took it’s time and let me get my spare on before I could catch back up. Near the aptly named town of Grass Range, the sun came out as the rain and hail moved to the north. The golden light contrasted with the cool blues on the other side of the sky. Outflow winds gave meaning to the term (not yet amber) "waves of grain". I tried to use a long enough exposure to show some of this movement in the wheat. From here it would be a long 250 mile drive home on a donut tire.
    Waves of Grain
  • 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
  • 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
  • I arrived in Badlands National Park just in time to watch the first of 4 thunderstorms move through.
    Welcome to the Badlands
  • While I was visiting Illinois I had the chance to chase this storm outside of the town of Benson. The storm wasn't much, although it had some OK structure. But it was nice being back, since central Illinois is where I first learned how to storm chase.
    Benson Barn Storm
  • After driving for over 5 hours I finally reached the edge of this powerful supercell just west of Faith, South Dakota. From a distance I could see wall clouds and funnels, but up close they disappeared. I was having trouble recognizing the storm structure until I noticed this horseshoe-shaped RFD cut. The back of the horseshoe shows where a potential tornado would form. There was a short-lived funnel, visible at the bottom center. At the time there was a mobile dopplar radar parked down the road scanning the skies.
    RFD and Funnel
  • Tumbleweeds rolled across the road as I drove through the Nebraska panhandle with this stunning supercell behind me. I was looking for something, a barn, winding road, etc, to shoot in front of the storm. But mostly I wanted to capture a time lapse without power lines getting in the way. Finally I found what I was looking for: a lone tree on the edge of a barren field. I ran out to the tree and had 6 minutes to take pictures before the winds would blow over my tripod.
    Tree Vs Supercell
  • 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
  • The horizontal cloud stretching out from the supercell is known as a beaver tail. It is formed from moist inflow winds feeding into the storm. The winds were very strong as you can see from all the dust picked up underneath. There was a tornado ongoing at this time which damaged 2 homesteads near the Nebraska/Wyoming border. But it wasn't visible from my location and I couldn't get any closer because there weren't any roads heading east.
    Beaver Tail
  • Just before the drenching rain started, I took one last shot and captured this bolt of lightning, reflected in Big Goose Creek.
    Electric Green
  • A partial rainbow hangs above the buttes and mesas of eastern Arizona. On this early November afternoon, scattered rain showers drifted across the landscape. The shadows and patches of sunlight revealed the full range of colors that the Painted Desert is known for. This desert was once a forest with a much wetter climate, and a wide variety of wildlife. But now it's filled with petrified logs and fossils. Also found in Petrified Forest National Park are many archaeological sites including pueblos, petroglyphs, and other artifacts, some of which are thousands of years old.
    Painted Desert Rainbow
  • 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
  • Just outside of Brockway, I managed to get a few miles ahead of this ominous shelf cloud. The NWS would later classify this storm a derecho.
    Surging Shelf Cloud
  • After the main storm cleared out, this mini supercell popped up in the Black Hills behind it. It briefly reached severe limits before weakening.
    Black Hills Mini Supercell
  • 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
  • When I passed by this cool looking abandoned house, I knew I had to stop. The sky behind it shows the early stages of a long tracking supercell.
    Nobody's Home
  • I spent Memorial Day chasing storms across the Colorado High Plains. Colorado may not be the first state people think of when it comes to tornadoes. But it actually sees more than 50 a year on average, mostly in the eastern third of the state. Upslope flow causes storms to fire when moist southeasterly winds encounter the Rockies. The Palmer Divide is a ridge east of the Front Range and it creates what's known as the Denver Convergence Vorticity Zone. The changing winds in the DCVZ generates extra spin which makes storms rotate. But many of the tornadoes are weak and short-lived, at least they were on this day. Of the 3 possible twisters I saw, none of them were very clear. This was taken near Holyoke when swirling dust appeared underneath a funnel.
    Holyoke Tornado
  • On Memorial Day I spent the afternoon following multiple supercells, funnel clouds, and tornadoes across the high plains of Colorado. After a long day I was ready to head for home. But at 7PM the atmosphere still wasn’t done producing. This last storm spun up near the town of Wray. It displayed some impressive structure as it passed over the hills covered with sage brush and yucca. The NWS surprisingly issued a tornado warning for this cell, but nothing came of it. Most of the day had been fast-paced and hectic, dodging hail while surrounded by crowds of chasers there for the same reason. But now it was quiet and peaceful. This was the perfect storm to end the day with before beginning the long drive back.
    Wray Supercell
  • After a shelf cloud passes overhead and before the rain arrives, it's called being 'in the whale's mouth.' With dark, fast-moving, turbulent clouds filling almost the entire sky, and only a narrow opening letting in light, it really can feel like you've been swallowed up by a whale.
    Under the Whale's Mouth
  • I chased this severe thunderstorm on the Crow Indian Reservation. These tepees at the trading post in Crow Agency made for a nice foreground.
    Crow Agency Thunderstorm
  • This supercell dropped hail the size of baseballs and brought a good lightning show as it got closer.
    Cloud Piercer
  • Badlands are a type of terrain that experiences rapid erosion, estimated to be an inch per year at Badlands National Park. Much of that erosion happens during thunderstorms like this one. When the downpour first started I was disappointed because I didn’t get any shots of the storm structure beforehand. But then there was a break in the rain. It lasted just long enough for me to rush back to this overlook and capture the dark menacing clouds above surrounded by two blueish-green rain cores. Hidden in the ravine below were big horn sheep climbing the steep muddy terrain. The second wall of water hit even heavier than the first and dropped visibility to almost zero. A local told me they had never seen a spring with more rain. And they were right, 2019 was to become the wettest year on record in western South Dakota.
    Wall of Water
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • There was an outbreak of at least 3 tornadoes in southeast Wyoming. September tornadoes are very rare in this state. But 2019 has been a strange storm season, both starting late and ending late. This supercell north of Torrington developed a long inflow tail (aka a beaver tail) feeding moisture into the storm. It’s common to feel cool outflow winds coming out of a storm. But when you feel warm and moist inflow winds blowing into the storm that’s when you know tornado potential is high. These opposing winds help tighten up the rotation near the ground. The southeasterly winds were kicking up so much sand and dust I could feel it in my eyes, ears, and mouth. Because of poor ground visibility I didn’t get a very good view of the twister, but the structure was still impressive. When the sun came out it provided a stark contrast between the dark blue clouds and the bright golden grass.
    Beaver Tail and Bluff
  • It was great to get out for my first storm chase of the year. This supercell was showing it's best structure near Upton.
    At the Logging Camp
  • After the storms passed off to the east, the anvil filled the entire sky with mammatus. A small clearing to the west allowed sunlight to shine through and illuminate the clouds. All the ingredients were there for an incredible sunset, so I went to Glendo Reservoir and waited. The colors did not disappoint.
    Glendo Lake Sunset
  • The radar showed hail up to softball sized falling in this area. But I was glad for these horses sake that it missed them.
    Wet Horse Rainbow
  • This was the 2nd twister that I saw outside of Buffalo, South Dakota. It danced around, touching the ground briefly and lifting again a few times. But the wall cloud on the right was beginning to show very rapid motion. It was about to drop a wedge tornado, and I knew I had to get closer to get a better view.
    Cute Little Twister
  • While I was visiting Illinois I had the chance to chase this storm outside of the town of Benson. The storm wasn't much, although it had some OK structure. But it was nice being back, since central Illinois is where I first learned how to storm chase.
    Wet Soybeans
  • On this day a severe MCS (mesoscale convective system) roared across eastern Montana. Since I was out ahead of the storm near Miles City I had plenty of time to find an interesting place to watch it roll in. The Kinsey Bridge is a 4-span truss bridge that crosses the Yellowstone River. The single-lane bridge was built in 1907 and the poor condition made it unnerving to drive across. According to the National Bridge Inventory database, the Kinsey Bridge has a sufficiency rating of 56 out of 100 when it was last inspected. Just after 7PM the gust front passed overhead bringing with it strong winds, blowing dust, and heavy rain.
    Yellowstone River Shelf
  • I stopped at the MT/WY stateline and watched this thunderstorm roll off of the Bighorn Mountains. Since there was no wind, I was able to keep shooting a time lapse without getting raindrops on the lens.
    Downpour
  • The last Sunday of April brought the first thunderstorm of the year. After getting hailed on while hiking, I found a place to shoot the storm near Big Horn. These 3 horses seemed unfazed by the threatening sky and mammatus clouds above them.
    Horses and Mammatus
  • I went to Lake DeSmet at 3AM on a 5°F night with the hope of seeing the aurora. I didn't see it, but I saw this amazing scene instead. Fog was moving off of the lake when I arrived. It left behind a thick frost known as rime ice. The coating was about an inch thick over every single plant and tree branch, but only in this small area. With bright moonlight illuminating everything, it felt like I had stepped into another world.
    Moonlit Rime
  • This severe thunderstorm rolled through Sheridan at the end of July, bringing heavy rain, strong winds, and hail. This was the view from the rest stop.
    Sheridan Rainfoot
  • Mid-June brought a tornado outbreak on the high plains with dozens of twisters reported in 4 states. I intercepted this strongly rotating mesocyclone while tornado sirens went off in Fort Laramie (the very first settlement in Wyoming according to the sign). Storm chasing in Wyoming is different than in other places. Because roads are so few and far between, it's unlikely that you'll be able to follow a storm for very long. Instead you have to anticipate the storm's movement so you can get ahead of it while staying aware of all the paved road options and escape routes. Then you just have to hope to get some good shots before losing the storm in a roadless area. On the lower right a funnel can be seen under the tightening wall cloud. Even though I didn't see it touch the ground, the time corresponds with a tornado reported to the southwest. After this I packed up my tripod and left in a hurry as small hail began to fall. This supercell had already dropped massive grapefruit-sized (4.5") hailstones and I prefer to keep my windshield intact.
    Funnel and Mesocyclone
  • 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
  • This severe thunderstorm rolled out of the Black Hills and approached Bear Butte Lake near Sturgis.
    Sturgis Storm
  • It was a very hot summer day in Illinois with oppressive humidity and extremely unstable air. At 5PM this storm exploded into existence near Utica and in less than an hour it was dropping 4" hail. After leaving the storm to cross the Illinois River and avoid getting caught in the hail, I met back up with it here. The supercell was showing some of the best structure I've seen with an obvious spiral shape. The clear slot caused by the rear flank downdraft made it easy to pinpoint where a potential tornado would form. A likely funnel cloud can be seen just above the distant group of trees. But even though conditions in the upper atmosphere were more than enough to support a tornado, the winds at the surface were too weak. I followed the supercell for most of it's life cycle but nothing ever touched down.
    Red Barn Supercell
  • Distant thunderstorms that resemble cauliflowers begin to build under a rising moon. This was taken from Gander Mountain, which is the highest point in Lake County, Illinois. At the time this was taken, the storms were 30+ miles to the east over Lake Michigan.<br />
<br />
Date Taken: May 3, 2012
    Cauliflower Moon
  • Chasing storms in and around the Black Hills is a challenge. Finding a good viewing spot isn't always easy, but I was lucky to find this overlook outside of Sundance. When everything comes together just right, the colors and structure of the supercells here are stunning.
    Sundance Supercell
  • Large hail began to fall from this supercell north of Gillette, with rays of sunlight in the background.
    Suspended Hail Stones
  • I got to Hulett just in time to watch two supercells pass to the north and to the south. Both of them had tornado warnings, and both produced very large hail. From the top of this bluff I had an excellent view of Devils Tower and the Missouri Buttes. It was almost a once in a lifetime chance to capture a tornado over the tower, but it didn't happen. It was still an awesome sight though.
    Making the Tower Look Small
  • This shelf cloud first blew over me outside of Jordan, Montana. It was very dusty and windy.
    Jordan Derecho
  • This storm was at my heels, but I had to make a quick stop for this view near Whitewood before getting on I-90. A tornado warning was issued a few minutes later.
    Acorn Ridge Road
  • 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
  • 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
  • Raymer Supercell
  • 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
  • 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
  • A weakening storm approached the west side of the Bighorn Mountains. The sun came out and this double rainbow appeared. It was so vivid it felt like I could reach out and touch it. At first it was almost a complete circle. I rushed to capture a time lapse and had to keep wiping the raindrops off my lens. I got quite wet as a result, but it was worth it.<br />
<br />
A double rainbow is caused by light reflecting a second time within raindrops. The secondary rainbow is located 8° apart from the primary bow, and is almost double the width. The colors are fainter, and in reverse order (VIBGYOR instead of ROYGBIV.) In between the two rainbows is a darkened part of the sky called Alexander’s Band. The sunlight is always brightest in the center of a rainbow at the anti-solar point. But since this bright light is also reflected opposite the secondary rainbow, that leaves a dark band in between.
    Seeing Double
  • 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
  • This storm rolled in on the Montana border at 8PM and was producing a lot of lightning.
    Lightning Near Aberdeen
  • Horses graze under a building thunderstorm near Philip, South Dakota.
    Horses and Cumulonimbus
  • 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
Next