In the words of Ice-T: storm chasin’ ain’t easy.
Okay, maybe he didn’t say exactly that, but close enough.
But anyway, and this may come as a surprise, but the summer of 2024 was my first with the intent of chasing storms.
For all my previous years as a landscape photographer, I was a light chaser, trying to catch sunrises and sunsets and golden hour and crepuscular rays and the like. Stormy weather usually played a part, but it was typically by chance if I ended up photographing a storm dropping lightning bolts.
However, I’d always admired our local Arizona storm chasers, especially Mike Olbinski and Lori Grace Bailey — both of whom are talented photographers and storm chasers, but —most importantly — kind-hearted people. And so after years of admiring the chases of others, last summer I decided to finally try my hand at storm chasing.
On my first outing on a stormy afternoon in late June, I struck gold — I caught a micro-burst unloading a rain shaft not three miles from my house, followed by a rainbow amongst the saguaros near New River, and then some good lightning strikes near Black Canyon City.
And that continued as I went out twice a week for several weeks — I knew enough of reading the sky and watching weather radar that I had a pretty good hit rate. But before long my inexperience caught up with me.
On a fateful day in July, I went out on chase with my friend Chris, with him driving and me mostly calling the shots. And let me tell you, it was truly a chase where the storms were literally running circles around us.
But, we made lemonade. And that’s how this image came about. While we didn’t get within 30 miles of a photographable lightning strike until 9pm, we did catch a great sunset at Yarnell Hill Vista.
And while this photo isn’t all up in the storm’s grill, the towering cumulonimbus sure did make a nice backdrop for the golden light on the Weaver Mountains.
We might not have gotten the close-up action we were looking for, but there was still some powerful scenes to behold as long as we kept our minds open. This was a lesson I learned multiple times over the course of the summer.
I will, however, continue learning the art and science of storm forecasting, and hopefully next summer I will find myself even more often in position to see and capture some extreme monsoon weather.
In a nutshell, keep on making lemonade and keep on growing. Anyway, Happy Thursday everyone.
-Jake
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