In the spring every year, large photo-worthy storm cells develop in the Great Plains from Texas to North Dakota -- usually too far away from New Mexico for stormchasing. Due to New Mexico's geography and dry climate, supercells rarely arise in our state.
Near the end of May, however, one of those large storms developed on the plains about 80 miles southeast of Albuquerque, so my friend, Alan, and I hopped in the car and raced to catch up and get ahead of the storm which was moving northeast.
As we drove, Alan monitored the storm on near-real-time radar with an app on his tablet, so we could see where the storm was heading and our position relative to it. There were actually two cells: a smaller one north of us that intensified for a few minutes, then seemed to fizzle out as it moved away from us . . .
. . . and a larger one to the west that seemed to be growing fast.
Soon it began to rotate . . .
. . . and a few minutes later, a spindly funnel cloud dropped down. It lasted about 30 seconds, barely reaching the ground before it dissipated.
There were dozens of other stormchasers out there with us - here are just a few:
The storm cell kept moving, but was becoming disorganized, so we headed west back to Albuquerque. Here's what the back side of the cell looked like:
If you would like to see these images in a larger format, please visit my photography website, Todos Juntos Photography, by clicking here.
Enjoy!
