Grand Canyon Village Clearing Storm
“Should you shield the canyons from the windstorms, you would never see the beauty of their carvings.”
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
You need to adapt. An unexpected, challenging situation may result in something beautiful, despite your difficulties in appreciating it at the time.
Such was the case with this year’s tornado chase. A severely clear, cold air mass blanketed the Great Plains, eliminating any chance of supercells and tornadoes.
Heading north from Denver to the Dakotas for non-existent tornadoes was not an option.
But our disappointment created the possibility to photograph other types of weather. In my years of visiting the Southwest, I’ve never been able to photograph the beauty of rain and lightning over the Grand Canyon.
So, our tour group headed south to Arizona, reframing our attitude from one of disappointment to the possibilities of photography in the Southwest.
Southwest Monsoon Storms
The Southwest Monsoon is a pattern of thunderstorm and rainfall over large areas of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. The monsoon typically occurs between June and mid-September.
A cycle starting with daytime heating builds thunderstorms during the late afternoon and early evening. Typically, monsoon storms dissipate by late night with the cycle beginning anew the next morning.
But monsoon storms are spotty and can dissipate rapidly. You need to be in the right place at the right time. And the Grand Canyon is deceptively large, meaning you need to choose your shot location carefully.
The Shot
Photographing lightning is easy. Photographing lightning with an interesting foreground is quite a bit more challenging. So, when the forecast on June 29 called for the possibility of monsoon storms over the Grand Canyon, our group of storm chasers (formerly tornado chasers) was overjoyed.
We arrived in time to witness several storms during the afternoon featuring lightning and a rare hailstorm. A quick check of my camera LCD screen indicated that I had captured several lightning bolts over the canyon.
About an hour before sunset, it looked like the show was over. We started our long drive out of the park when the weather radar and a look out the window told us to head back to the Grand Canyon Village viewpoint.
What a fortuitous decision.
At sunset, the sky lit up with beautiful yellow storm light. The waning thunderstorm cell had one last lightning bolt left in it. Luckily, we all took the time to put down our cameras to just bask in the “beauty of their carvings.”
Thanks for looking,
Chuck Derus