This is my twentieth season chasing storms. Dude, that’s two decades. I’m pretty sure the older generation of chasers still considers me and my contemporaries post-“Twister” whipper snappers, but seriously. I’ve been around. I’ve seen more tornadoes that I’ve bothered to count (but have had prints made of the photogenic ones). I’ve had cars remodeled by hail and a deer (unrelated to storms, except it happened during one of those trips). I’ve learned stressful situations help forge great friendships. I’ve chased storms with friends and, often, by myself. I remember when you could have a storm all to yourself – a virtual impossibility today as storm-chasing culture, fueled by TV, has exploded (whipper snappers!). Perhaps this is all a way to say that I’m kind of old.

Nonetheless, I just started my twentieth chase trip to Tornado Alley. In between, I chase storms in Florida and take photos of weather (and other things) wherever I am, but every year, this is the time when I fuel my passion and try to capture the incredible storms of the Great Plains with my cameras. Some years have been better than others. This one started with a bang – just one day into my trip, I saw one of the best tornadoes of my career, near Wray, Colorado.

Lots of things have changed in storm chasing since I started, not least of which is the availability of Internet, and therefore radar data, in the car. (Making it SO easy for the whipper snappers.) One of the side effects of all this instant connectivity is that after you have an incredible experience filming a tornado and feel all warm and fuzzy about it (at least when they occur in the middle of nowhere), in a few moments, you see a better photo or angle on Twitter on Facebook and kick yourself for not getting the same thing. There were amazing photos of the big Wray tornado from the other side – better than mine – but it was still amazing to be there.

That’s the joy of life, isn’t it? We all have different experiences, at least when we actually get out and experience things, instead of having them spoon-fed to us on television and in other media. And one of the beautiful things about storm chasing is that every experience is not just unique to the individual, it’s unique to the moment. There will never again be a storm exactly like the one I saw Saturday that produced that dusty tornado. And the challenge will always remain to get the forecast right, to get into the best viewing position, and to avoid being swept away to Oz.

Though I wouldn’t mind seeing Dorothy’s tornado.

Given the epic amounts of driving I’ve done so far just to get into position and then chase on Saturday, I haven’t had time to update my 2016 chase reports yet. But stay tuned to SkyDiary.com, where I’ll have a full report on the Wray tornado soon (which I caught with Jason Persoff), along with photos of other chases. See you under the meso!

I headed out to the Plains on the early side in 2016, as I saw storm possibilities and didn’t want to wait a week. (Living in Florida, I have to ration my chasecations.) I was hoping for the much-vaunted Colorado magic to happen today – May 7, 2016 – and indeed it did. I targeted the area with the best moisture (it doesn’t take much at this altitude) and most backed winds, at least according to model forecasts.

Lots of convection fired early and often, but I still hoped for a quality storm to get going in that area, and it finally did. By that point in the chase, I’d met up with Jason Persoff, and at Wray, Colorado, we witnessed a beautiful, dusty tornado from funnel to stovepipe.

Later, I had some regrets when I saw how close people got to the gorgeous base of the tornado on the sunlit side, but we had a fantastic show and the dramatic photos to prove it.

The photos in the gallery below, transferred from my old Sky Diary website, reflect early, not final, edits. But the edit I did of this shot – enhancing the natural sepia-toned color and contrast of the day and evoking a vintage photograph – is one of my favorites.

Roll over each image to see the caption, or click on one to see a slide show with larger photos.

I have a lot of interests. Storm chasing is high on the list. So are writing and photography. And one of the subjects I get to pursue as a photographer living on Florida’s Space Coast has to do with the sky, but not so much to do with storms: launch photography.

You can catch some of my launch photos in a show opening at Rocket City Retro this weekend. The reception starts at 7 p.m. Saturday night at this mid-century-modern furniture and design hub in Cocoa, Florida. You’ll also see a whimsical piece, with a silver finish on aluminum, that I call “We Will Use You For Parts” (above). The toys come from my collection of wind-ups.

And it’s not all about me! Several fantastic artists are featured at the event. (See the details at Brevard Culture.)

I have some old launch photos on my quaintly HTML Sky Diary storm chasing site, but this show will feature some newer ones, including “Spaceport U.S.A.,” shot at Port Canaveral and presented on aluminum. I’m a freelancer now, but I covered space for about four years for Florida Today, and I still get jazzed about a launch.

Come on out to the show and say hi!  If you can’t make the party Saturday, the art will hang through the end of April.

Details

What: “Rockets and Robots” art show opening
Where: Rocket City Retro, 116 Forrest Ave., Cocoa, Florida
When: 7-10 p.m. Saturday, March 19
Admission: Free
Bonus: Cash bar with craft cocktails by the Straw Hat Barmen

It’s time. My Storm Seekers Trilogy is now available in a digital boxed set and is on sale for $5.99.

What’s a digital boxed set? It’s all three novels of my storm-chasing adventures, Funnel Vision, Tornado Pinball and Zap Bang, in one e-book volume. Ready for a binge-read? You can get it for Kindle and the free Kindle app (it’s easy to give on Amazon, too), as well as iBooks, Nook and Kobo. Get all the links on the books page.

The first three books each can stand alone, but they also work together as a trilogy. I intend to continue the series at some point. For the past year, I’ve been quietly writing a romance series, but new Storm Seekers stories are brewing in my brain. Thanks so much to everyone who has read and reviewed the books!

 
Hurricane Joaquin, though well offshore, spawned big waves on Florida’s east coast on September 30, 2015 – or, at least, big waves for Brevard County.

The surfers came out to enjoy the ride, and I photographed them at the Cocoa Beach Pier.

Roll over a photo to see its caption, and click on any of the pictures to start a slide show of larger images.

Our version of big waves probably wouldn’t lure Laird Hamilton, but for Florida, today’s waves were pretty impressive. Offshore Hurricane Joaquin was pumping them up, and the surfers came out in droves to Cocoa Beach and “Second Light,” at Patrick Air Force Base. See my photos from today here.

Meanwhile, summer is over, with few nighttime lightning storms for me to shoot here on the east coast. Nonetheless, I’ve pulled together the sparkling scraps from the summer, and you can find them here. The quest continues to get the perfect lightning shot at Port Canaveral’s Exploration Tower, but I got a couple that were pretty.

And now, the 90-degree days of autumn continue! Enjoy!

For more storm photos and videos from this year, including twisters from Tornado Alley, see the 2015 storm galleries.

 

Lightning was sparse over the summer of 2015 – or should I say photographable lightning at night in east-central Florida was sparse. Other areas seemed to light up nightly.

In this post are gathered stormy scraps from this summer, including a few lightning shots that helped make the season palatable.

Roll over a photo to see its caption, and click on any of the pictures to start a slide show of larger images.

 
Strong storms started early on August 13. By 1:30 p.m., when I was in Satellite Beach, a magnificent shelf cloud was bearing south.

Beachgoers took their time to leave the beach in the face of the ominous arcus cloud. I couldn’t resist waiting for it and shooting as many photos as possible, given its delicate layers.

Roll over an image below to see its caption, and click on any photo below to start a slide show of larger images.

On July 6, this was one of those chases that materialized when, vaguely aware that a bunch of storms were forming in central Florida, I looked out the window and saw a nice shelf cloud (arcus cloud) forming. After muttering several words I can’t print here, I grabbed my camera and raced out the door to get into position.

First stop: the east end of the S.R. 520 bridge, looking back west at Cocoa. From there I went to Cocoa Beach and then Satellite Beach, marveling at how the delicate light and color of the layers in the cloud changed as it raced east toward the beach (and I hit every freaking red light in Merritt Island).

Roll over each image to see the caption, or click on one to see a slide show with larger photos.

While I have many projects in the works – producing videos, writing a novel, helping a client publish a book – I’ve been shooting tons of photos recently. The subjects have ranged from a pinup to a sugar artist to a newspaper preview of Epcot’s International Food and Wine Festival. But as always, I’m drawn to nature, especially weather. And when the weather doesn’t cooperate – I’m still waiting for a great nighttime lightning storm here – there are sea turtles!

I recently accompanied storm chaser Peggy Willenberg and her friends, experts on turtles, as they roamed the east central Florida beaches one evening looking for nesting sea turtles. Our target was the Floridana Beach area, north of Sebastian, a popular area for turtles. We saw perhaps ten that night, under the full moon – at least when it stopped raining. We went out in a light rain just after dark. White light and flash photography should not be used when observing turtles, so all of these photos were taken in almost complete darkness with only the help of the full moon. The shoot was incredibly challenging. A red light is OK, and one of my friends had one, but it was rarely used. So focusing was almost impossible. (Next time, I’ll bring a red light to assist with focus.) We saw a couple of turtles early in our search, and then, after a lull, saw several more until we stopped about 1:30 a.m.

There was something magical and primal about these beautiful creatures emerging from the ocean to do what they’ve done for thousands of years, and I did my best to capture the experience. See more photos below.

Note: This post has been updated with the gallery that originally appeared on SkyDiary.com.

Roll over each image to see the caption, or click on one to see a slide show with larger photos.