Monsoon Storm in the Desert

This large monsoon storm in the desert was a beast of a storm to witness. Dropping a large amount of much needed rain and a little lightning in the Arizona desert it was the highlight of a long chase night.

Monsoon Storm In The Desert Drops Rain and Lightning

This storm system fired up early in the evening near Gila Bend AZ. It was early September last year and I had tracked it on radar for some time. I wan’t sure if it would hold up by the time I got there but I decided to go after it regardless. There are a lot of nights when you make this call and it turns out to be a bust. It goes with the territory of chasing storms. On this night I would be rewarded for my perseverance.

I left my house around 5pm that evening headed to the Casa Grand area. Weather models had predicted some intense storms in that area to start firing off around 5pm. A check of radar confirmed the predictions and I was out the door. Upon arriving at Casa Grand, the storms were fast moving and hard to keep up with due to their speed. A decision had to be made whether to try and get ahead of it or wait for another system to spin up behind this one. I chose to race out towards Gila Bend.

I managed to get several shots from this storm, but the two images in this blog post were my favorites. The rain shaft they came out of this storm was just massive. It had several lightning strikes but most were inside the storm and didn’t make themselves visible say but a few. Nonetheless it was a worthwhile trip down I8 for this beautiful storm.

I’m scheduled to head out to the plains on the 19th of this month to chase super cells and tornadoes for a week. I can’t wait to get back out there in the wild open spaces.

Until next time.