15 April 2014: A Florida shelf cloud saves the chase

The tail end of the outflow boundary/shelf cloud wasn't as impressive as the rest, but it was still pretty. Photo by Chris Kridler, ChrisKridler.com, SkyDiary.com

The tail end of the outflow boundary/shelf cloud wasn’t as impressive as the rest, but it was still pretty. Photo by Chris Kridler, ChrisKridler.com, SkyDiary.com

I had a pretty frustrating storm chase today – just a quick one in between work I’m doing on a video project, a book edit and photo shoots – as I tried to intercept a beautiful shelf cloud ahead of a line of severe storms. I just couldn’t get in front of it in position to take a good photo and ended up driving in a huge circle in Brevard County, Florida, in intense rain and wind. My persistence paid off in a slightly less spectacular but moody photo of the tail end of the shelf, near the southern end of Patrick Air Force Base. See the rest of the photos here.