Last May, I spent over three weeks driving across the Midwest looking for storms. I spent most of my time in Texas, but I also made mad dashes up to Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. On May 21st, most of the big storms died out in tornado alley, but the models were showing some severe weather moving up over White Sands National Park. As I had never been there before and it seemed like one of the only options left, I headed down through Texas across the border, past Roswell (stopped for gas…no aliens) and eventually drove into the park by late afternoon, just as a heavy thunderstorm blew in. I was instantly struck by the high contrast between the deep black sky and the glowing white sand in all directions. I wasn’t able to catch much before it started pouring

On the second day, I headed back in late afternoon with more storms moving in. There were more people around on the 22nd, so I set off to walk as far as I could out into the dunes to get away from the crowd. As I quickly made my way across the dunes, I could see a pretty big cell blowing in, but I figured I had at least a half an hour to shoot before turning back. Well…I completely misjudged the speed of the storm and as soon as I set up the tripod, the wind picked up, sand began blowing sideways, giant rain drops and hail began to fall, and lighting crackled directly overhead. Thinking it would be a bad idea to be on top of one of those dunes waving a metal tripod around, I scrambled down and hid behind a yucca tree. I got drenched, but at least I didn’t get barbecued by the storm. After hiding out in the van for a bit, I headed back out just as the sun began to break through. Most of the crowds were gone for the day, and I shot my butt off for the next 3 hours or so.

If you want to see what I have been up to as a storm chaser, my “Storm Chasing In A Prius” video is now up on my Youtube channel as well as “Looking For Storms In Badlands National Park.” With any luck, my 2023 storm chasing episodes will go live at some time in September. Please feel free to visit the channel at the link below. :)

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