Stormy Skies Over the Airport

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Last weekend stormy skies over the airport drew me out for an early evening chase. Phoenix Sky Harbor was the place to be as there were numerous storms around the area. I made my way to the airport to time lapse a monsoon storm with an amazing rain core.

Stormy Skies Over the Airport

So far this monsoon season has been quite good. I had my doubts going into this season along with several weather experts. The forecast early on called for a less than stellar storm season. Fortunate for us that has not been the case for 2014. I have good luck of being on several large storm cells this year.

The time lapse of the monsoon rain storm came as a bonus late Sunday. I had written off the day when I saw a band of storms making their way north from the Gila Bend area. As they made their way into downtown Phoenix I headed out to intercept them. I decided to head to the airport parking garage as I figured I would need shelter from the rain if I wanted close up photos of the storm.

Upon arriving at the airport I quickly realized the storms in downtown had already lost their steam. However all was not lost as I had driven through the monsoon rain storm on my way over to the airport. The storm was not letting up so I began my time lapse of it.

The airport parking garage gave a perfect view of the storm off to the east. I photographed it for about a half an hour before it played out. As it wound down a few other storm cells started popping up to the north. The image above is a capture during a brief break where the skies opened up for a bit and offered a stunning view of the stormy skies over the Phoenix Sky Harbor.

I love the implied “movement” of this image. You have planes parked at the gate and a few taxing out to depart. Life at the airport is a busy one.

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