Seven Days, 3,181 Miles
That’s a lot of driving. Storm chasing consists of seemingly interminable travel that sometimes ends with a storm. But the beauty and excitement of an epic storm over the wide-open Great Plains makes it all worthwhile.
On last week’s storm chasing tour, we visited parts of Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico pursuing storms. I don’t want to sit in the back seat of a van for another year!
Meeting The Twisted Sisters
A week’s worth of van riding creates the opportunity to meet new people and to make new friends. There were 35 chasers, drivers, and co-owners riding in five vans during last week’s tour.
Arrival day on the tour is usually quiet with orientation followed by dinner. But storm conditions looked promising on that day. Luckily, friend and fellow photographer Jon Christofersen and I arrived early enough to participate in the optional chase.
We were instructed to meet another chaser, Jeanette, at the airport and wait for a chase van to pick us up. After we met, we learned that Jeanette is one of three sisters that gather yearly from all over the country to go storm chasing.
Jeanette and her sisters were easy to spot in their red, “Twisted Sisters” custom shirts. It was a pleasure getting to know them during the tour.
Jeanette, Me, Amy, and Luann
The Shot
We were near Ulysses, Kansas on the late afternoon of May 30. A thunderstorm featuring a prominent shelf cloud was bearing down on us.
A shelf cloud is a low, horizontal, wedge-shaped cloud attached to the base of the parent thunderstorm. Rising cloud motion can often be seen in the leading (outer) part of the shelf cloud, while the underside can often appear as turbulent and wind torn.
The light was brilliant. At sunset, light must pass through much more atmosphere than when it’s overhead at noon. That extra atmosphere filters out the blue light, allowing reds, oranges, and yellows to paint the clouds and landscape.
Clouds also play a role in producing a colorful sunset. That's because certain clouds can reflect red and orange hues toward the ground. And rain can clear out larger haze particles that would otherwise dim the reds, oranges, and yellows.
It was one of several occasions on tour where brilliant yellows bathed the landscape. I composed the image to include a distant grain elevator and water tower on the horizon on the right for scale.
All thoughts of miles driven left my mind as we witnessed nature’s beauty on the plains.
Thanks for looking,
Chuck Derus