Desert Lightning

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There is nothing like seeing desert lightning. I don’t know if it is the wide open space or the contrast with the desert itself but to see it in person is magical. 

Desert Lightning Strikes

This past summer was an amazing monsoon season here in Arizona. Early reports were indicating that the monsoon might not deliver like in years past so we were hoping for anything close to normal. What we got was an absolute treat in 2014. Storm after storm delivered on haboobs, lightning, and cloud structure. Shelf clouds and funnels were spotted across the state. Wow!

The shot you see above was captured out in eastern Mesa. Towards the left of the image are the Superstition Mountains. This particular storm proved to be quite a challenge. As it began developing south of my location I had a gut feeling it would be short lived. I stayed at my current location a little longer than I would have liked but my intuition told me this was going to be my best set of shots. Satisfied with what I had I left my high ground and made my way towards the storm hoping for some up close strikes.

As I made my way for highway 60 the outflow from the storm was already letting up. All I could do was smile and hope for the best. Unfortunately my gut instinct was right. I made my way onto the highway and raced towards what was left of this monsoon storm. By the time I found a clear spot to shoot from the strikes were gone. Such is the life of the chase.

I have quite a few more images to process from this season’s chasing so keep an eye out during the winter months as I work through those. Not to mention I still have a few time lapses left to process as well.

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Until next time…