Here in New Mexico, we rarely see those magnificent, photogenic supercell storms like the ones in the Great Plains, so we have to be content with smaller storms.
Late last month, weather forecasts seemed favorable for some isolated thunderstorms in central and southeastern New Mexico. My friend, Alan, and I opted for the possibilities in central NM, closer to home (round trip roughly 230 miles), doable in half a day.
By noon RadarScope was showing a couple of promising cells about 30 miles southwest of Vaughn, moving west to east. So we had time for lunch at Penny's Diner . . .
. . . then drove a few miles south of Vaughn on US 285 to be in position for the approaching storm cell.
When found a good viewpoint about 1:30, there was already a cell nearby, but it didn't look very interesting (on the left in the photo below). The cell we were interested in was about 10 miles directly west of our position (circled).
BTW, this is the same area where almost exactly two years earlier we saw a pretty good cell and, briefly, a tornado. To see images from that trip, click here.
We watched and waited (and pushed the shutter button) as the cell moved directly toward us.
While we waited, we saw this on the highway behind us:
Any guesses about what it is?
Meanwhile, the storm cell was coming right toward us . . .
Detail from left side of the photo above this one. |
. . . so we decided to move around to the side of it for a different view by driving 15 miles back to the northwest near Encino:
Here's what it looked like from the north side as it traveled from west to east (right to left in the three images below):
Clearly there was a lot of turbulence, which you can see in the photos above, but no rotation that would spawn a tornado.
To give you a better sense of the turbulence, I zoomed into the heart of the cell. This photo is enhanced by processing to increase the contrast and detail; it's my "shot of the day."
It reminds me of some of the illustrations by French graphic artist Gustave Doré (1832-1883):
As we headed for home, I looked back at the storm from a distance:
If you would like to see these images in a larger format, please visit my photography website, Todos Juntos Photography, by clicking here.
Enjoy!