In no particular order my favorite photos & videos of 2022’s stormchasing adventure.

Thursday was the last day of stormchasing for this trip with forecasts for Friday not looking promising. It’s crazy how quickly 10 days fly by.

We’ve been extremely fortunate this trip with storms to chase on all but 1 day, if we had 4-5 days with chaseable weather it would have been great so this really was excellent!

We started Thursday in Burlington, CO where we’d spent our only non chase day of the trip on Wednesday. We were well positioned for storms with just a short initial set up drive to Colby, KS where we had some more time on our hands. Finding things to do can be challenging in this part of Kansas.

After waiting until early afternoon our first potential target popped up on radar to our North so we headed into Southern NE to get a look.

In addition to our target storms, another cell began to develop 100 miles to our north, unfortunately a bit too far for us to realistically make it. I did however get a time-lapse of the storm to the north developing over the course of 30 minutes.

One of the most satisfying things to see is the way an updraft seemingly forms from nothing and develops into something intense over a very short amount of time.

Unfortunately our target storm started to peter out early so we decided to target a new storm to our South. The time-lapse below shows our drive into our 2nd target for the day.

After enjoying a spectacular lighting show it was time to reposition on our storm to keep up with it. With only small hail we were able to follow the storm closely as it rolled South East. The video below is 11 minutes of driving into the lightning! My favorite bit of stormchasing!

After relocating we had more awesome lighting, although I didn’t mange to get many good shots from this location.

Back on the road for some night time lightning before calling it a day.

The next 2 photos are the same lightning bolt over the course of a second.

Thursdays chase was a high note to end what had been a fantastic trip, reconnecting with some great friends and getting to know new ones, while soaking in the raw beauty that is mother nature.

Stay tuned for one more post with my highlights from this year’s trip!

With a new Windshield fitted on Tuesday we were back on the hunt for some twisty winds! With Nebraska in our sights we were on the road again!

Leaving Garden City Kansas we headed North to Nebraska where there was a good risk of isolated supercells forming and sustaining themselves throughout the evening.

The storm was moving consistently South East but at around 40 mph so staying on this storm was going to be tricky. The game of cat and mouse was on

With Storm moving so quickly there were few opportunities to stop and take photos, the following time-lapse videos show the chase, including some pretty intense winds kicking up dust as we zig zagged South and East to try and keep up.

An exhilarating chase thst tooks is across 3 ststes trying to keep up with this fast moving storm. Not the most photogenic of storms but certainly an exciting chase.

We started Saturday in Clovis, NM and planned to drive North towards Kansas where there was a 2% Tornado risk and would leave us in a good position for the next few days of storm activity.

The storms looked to be starting quite late in the afternoon so Saturday was one of the more leisurely set up drives.

Any storm activity on Saturday was going to be starting late, and conditions were not ideal for super cells. After lunch we continued to track North towards Kansas. As we passed into the Oklahoma panhandle it looked like storms were starting to get going to the West and track towards us.

After a brief stop in Texhoma we continued North to get out of town and watch the storms develop.

The risk of severe storms was highest later into the evening so we had the luxury of watching and waiting. While we did a rare cold air funnel cloud formed.

https://cloudatlas.wmo.int/en/clod-air-funnel.html#:~:text=Definition%3A%20Cold%2Dair%20funnel%3A,air%20aloft%20is%20unusually%20cold.

Storms continued start and then peter out, the tine-lapse below shows cumulus forming into a beginnings of a storm over the course of 10 minutes.

Cells continued to form and dissipate over the course of the afternoon with nothing within reach of our location developing enough to produce anything worth chasing.

We pulled into Garden City, KS for the evening well positioned for Sunday’s storms expected over Kansas and Southern Nebraska.

This 5% risk is the highest risk for Tornados of my trip so far, let’s see what Sunday brings…

Fridays chase took us back North towards New Mexico. First stop was Roswell which proved to be a fitting location to start a chase that would produce a stunning rotsting mothership cloud. The truth is out there…

After a quick stop for lunch and some sightseeing in Roswell we were ready to pick our target storm and head back on the road. Dan had a dilemma with viable storms starting to form North and South of us. This decision making when no single storm is an obvious target is where factors such as road options and the potential for storms the following day become important considerations. Having spent a day chasing earlier this week in Southern New Mexico oil country we knew the Southern storm would be a challenging target with limited roads and traffic from workers in the oil fields commuting home while we chased.

The decision was made we were going to target a storm forming North of Roswell.

After our drive North our target storm has picked up a severe warning and the chase is on!

The time-lapse below is our drive through Fort Sumner (home of Billy The Kid’s grave) towards our target storm. With the storms structure becoming more aparent as we drew newr.

As we got closer to the storm the structure started to reveal itself, with the New Mexico landscape providing the perfect backdrop.

Thanks to Dan’s excellent forecasting we were perfectly positioned ahead of the storm on a road that aowed us to get multiple vantage points. We had plenty of time to observe as the storm moved towards us. A nice contrast to our last NM chase!

After taking in some incredible shots we repositioned further South and West, heading into the storm and under the shelf cloud to get a view of the storms base.

We found a fantastic overlook that allowed us the luxury of just enjoying the show from the storm for a good 40 minutes.

Watching the storm unfold from this location was just brilliant, we were away from the precipitation with unobstructed views. We were able sit back, relax and watch the lightning show, with its supporting soundtrack of almost constant rumbling thunder. This experience is why I love storm chasing.

Below is a selection of lightning shots, with many of the strikes we witnessed proving elusive to the camera.

As the storm moved off to the South West we decided it was time to head home for the day, and round out an epic afternoon with some beers and BBQ.

We’re almost at the halfway point of the trip and so far every weather related box but 1 gas been checked, that elusive T word! 6 days left to find some twisty winds! Next stop Kansas.

Day 2 of storm chasing 2022 was very much dominated by 1 thing, hail!

We started the day in Childress TX so had an easy set up drive heading South towards Lamesa, TX. Conditions were less optimal than Tuesday’s chase but still promising with the potential for Tornados.

After heading South our target storm was given a severe warning by the national weather service, primarily due to its potential to produce large damaging hail.

Just a short trek further down the road the storm continued to take shape and put on a show with frequent lightning strikes and some impressive Mamatus.

As the storm continued to develop it started to turn South and East which meant we had to get South quickly to avoid the hail core. Unfortunately a limited number of road options meant we had to choose between a long detour back where we had driven from or a treacherous drive into the core of the storm. We decided to risk a core punch to try and reposition South.

Unfortunately our progress through the storm was hampered by a lot of traffic, we were in the heart of oil country and our storm coincided with the end of day commute for the areas oil workers.

Heavy winds, severe hail meant it was slow going and the storm continued to shift South and East along the road we were on.

Although initially frustrated at the slow progress and difficult conditions we were ultimately rewarded with views of the heaviest accumulations of hail i have seen, comfortably 2-3 inches over a wide area. West Texas was briefly transformed into an icy wonderland.

The huge deposits of hail were a sign the updraft on our storm was weakening and it began to get sucked into a line of cells moving West from NM into TX. The potential for isolated super cells was over for the day. Odessa, TX was our stop for the night and we arrived in town early enough for a proper meal!