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May 18, 2017, started with a “high risk” forecast issued by the Storm Prediction Center. I hate chasing high risks. I’ve had high-risk busts or missed fast-moving, violent wedges on high-risk days. I’ve never had a great high-risk chase.

At least today, Kathy Velasquez and I targeted northwest Oklahoma, broke the high-risk tornado curse and saw one near Waynoka. There were many pretty sights today, even if all of them were far too brief.

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This was almost the chase that didn’t happen. My car needed a crucial part after overheating, and it wasn’t available anywhere near where I was staying in Perryton, Texas, so I paid a courier to have it delivered – and the wrong part arrived, killing our chance to chase a day with solid tornado potential. Fortunately, saving the day for Kathy Velasquez and myself, our friends Matt Crowther, Betsy Abrams and Chuck Fallis saw our stranded status and picked us up. The chase was on, and we saw a smorgasbord of storms – a tornado, hail, supercells, and sadly, tornado damage.

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I’ve posted one more year-end video: Storms of 2016, consisting mostly of time-lapses of the incredible supercells and tornadoes I saw during my storm-chasing season in Tornado Alley. I doubt I’ll ever see another year like this one. The video is just over two minutes, accompanied by Very Dramatic Music. I hope you enjoy it.

In case you missed it, I previously posted a video slide show of my favorite storm photos from this year, too.

 
This year was challenging personally but was the most impressive I’ve ever had when it came to chasing storms. Tornado Alley lived up to its name in a dramatic fashion during my 20th season, and though Lightning Alley wasn’t particularly productive, a once-in-a-lifetime capture at home in Florida made the lightning season pretty exciting, too.

I’ve wrapped up some of my favorite storms and skyscapes of the year – along with a handful of rocket launches – in both a highlight video and a slide show set to music. (You can see more of my storm photos and buy prints in my official weather galleries, and find chase accounts on the Sky Diary pages.)

Thanks for watching. A peaceful new year to you all.

I had a fun moment this evening when I got to present a metal print of a once-in-a-lifetime lightning photo to the mayor of Cocoa, Florida, at a city council meeting. Cocoa is a town here on the Space Coast, and it’s proud of its award-winning water tower. I didn’t even know there was such a thing as an award-winning water tower, but Cocoa’s was named 2015 Tank of the Year. It’s also been a frequent target of my photography efforts. I’ve nabbed a few lightning photos with it over time, but on Sept. 28, I hit the jackpot. I snapped multiple photos of the tower with extremely close cloud-to-ground lightning bolts. Though I got multiple shots, each photo is just ONE exposure, of one flash.

I have just made the most spectacular photo (above) and an additional shot available in my online photo gallery for print orders. Both are available in various formats, including canvas, metal and fine art prints.

Photo links: Photo 1 | Photo 2

 
This was one of those spontaneous “gentlemen’s chases” (or lady’s chase) just a few minutes from home on Florida’s Space Coast that resulted in one of the most spectacular lightning photos I’ve ever captured.

A small, isolated storm was headed toward Cocoa, Florida, on September 28, 2016, not far from my home. At first I thought I might try to intercept it along the water somewhere, but I realized this might be the chance to get lightning with the Cocoa water tower (I’d tried before). I stopped at one location but was frustrated by the trees, so I thought I’d take a chance and see if the storm would cooperate and drop lightning close enough to the tower that I could capture it if I was right across the street.

For a while, it seemed the storm was dying, and then it pulsed up with stunning results. I posted the most insane of these lightning flashes on Facebook, and it went viral, with a few of the usual “this is Photoshopped” skeptics chiming in. The only “Photoshopping” on that photo was the kind of minimal adjustments to contrast and reduction of highlights that photographers do on all photos. The exposure was nearly perfect, so I made minimal adjustments later (bringing down the slight overexposure of the bright-white water tower) and trimmed a thin slice off the right edge to achieve 4×5 dimensions. Settings: ISO 100, f/11, 11 seconds.

In fact, this is one of the more perfect lightning exposures I’ve ever achieved. Luck, experience, patience and perseverance all played a role. You can read about how the chase and photos evolved in the captions below, with settings.

Roll over each image to see the caption, or click on one to see a slide show with larger photos. Interested in prints? Learn more.

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Kathy Velasquez and I targeted southwestern Kansas on May 24, 2016, and saw one of the most extraordinarily prolific tornado-producing storms of my career south of Dodge City, Kansas.

We also met up with or chased in the vicinity of chase friends Stephen Barabas, Scott McPartland, Dave Lewison, Jaclyn Whittal, George Kourounis, Mark Robinson, Bill Hark, Jason Persoff, Robert Balogh and John Mann – and a couple hundred other chasers!

 

We actually lost count of the tornadoes. Getting close was a challenge because of muddy roads, but the wide shots of the structure with the tornado were glorious, especially since it missed the bulk of Dodge City. And the day ended with even more spectacular skies, including a dazzling mammatus show.

 

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Kathy Velasquez and I targeted the north-central Texas Panhandle on May 22. Two tornadoes, including a large one that went from a wedge/fat cone to a multivortex beast, were the payoff for a crazy day of colliding storms and camera issues. And we got to film while being blasted with wind and rain and dodging peril as rear-flank downdraft winds knocked down telephone poles (watch the video for the grungy results).

Photography was challenging to say the least, but it was a visceral experience in person.

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On May 21, Kathy Velasquez and I focused our chase target to Leoti, Kansas, along with legions of other chasers, and were treated to a stunning supercell with amazing structure.

We barely saw the first tornado and missed the others but chose to hang back and appreciate this rare beauty of a storm rather than tangle with the rain. This supercell ranks among my favorite storms of all time for its beauty.

 

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On May 18, Kathy Velasquez and I aimed for the point where extreme western Texas met New Mexico, in the only warm air on the front that wasn’t in Mexico.

We went to El Paso and then north into New Mexico to chase the storms there. As a bonus, we saw a variety of scenery along the way.

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