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Bad weather in the Badlands

June 22, 2022 by Tony

A monstrous thunderstorm with a beautiful shelf cloud passes near Badlands National Park in South Dakota. (© Tony's Takes)
A monstrous thunderstorm with a beautiful shelf cloud passes near Badlands National Park in South Dakota. (© Tony’s Takes)

I really don’t storm chase anymore due to time constraints and the fact that the hobby has gotten to be a bit too crazy out there with way too many chasers on the road. Sometimes I do get lucky and have a storm come to me and I certainly don’t turn down those opportunities.

Such was the case just outside Badlands National Park last week. One evening, a monstrous storm cell was passing just to the north of us. It was absolutely impressive looking and as it was dumping 2-inch diameter hail, I was thankful it missed us.

The next night, we got a rude awakening right after midnight. The wind really began gusting and so I crawled out of bed and saw on radar a little storm cell was about ready to pummel us. We quickly prepped the RV and gear to be hit and sure enough, it did. The hail wasn’t too big although it did do some, relatively minor, damage. After it passed, Mother Nature put on a nice light show in the sky for us.

Bad weather in the Badlands
A monstrous thunderstorm with a beautiful shelf cloud passes near Badlands National Park in South Dakota. (© Tony’s Takes)
Lightning pops in the skies near Badlands National Park, South Dakota. (© Tony's Takes)
Lightning pops in the skies near Badlands National Park, South Dakota. (© Tony’s Takes)
Lightning pops in the skies near Badlands National Park, South Dakota. (© Tony's Takes)
Lightning pops in the skies near Badlands National Park, South Dakota. (© Tony’s Takes)

After work weather excitement

August 19, 2021 by Tony Leave a Comment

After work weather excitement
A tornado-warned thunderstorm moves across the northern Denver suburbs. (© Tony’s Takes)

Well this was kind of fun! I was almost home from work when a Tornado Warning was issued. That got my attention but, unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera with me (I know, sacrilege!).

I raced home, grabbed my gear and headed to the local fairgrounds. While I never saw any rotation, the storm cell did look pretty darned cool.

Down the road, a tornado-warned thunderstorm passes. (© Tony's Takes)
Down the road, a tornado-warned thunderstorm passes. (© Tony’s Takes)
Thunderstorms pop on Colorado's northeastern plains. (© Tony's Takes)
Thunderstorms pop on Colorado’s northeastern plains. (© Tony’s Takes)
A dramatic passing thunderstorm in northeastern Colorado. (© Tony's Takes)
A dramatic passing thunderstorm in northeastern Colorado. (© Tony’s Takes)

Lightning crawls across the post-sunset sky

October 3, 2019 by Tony Leave a Comment

Lightning crawls across the post-sunset sky
Lightning crawls across the bottom of a thunderstorm’s clouds near Denver, Colorado. (© Tony’s Takes)

Going back to the end of August for this pic. I and some photo friends had spent the evening photographing the sunflowers east of Denver, Colorado with a few thunderstorms rolling through.

Even after the sun had dropped below the horizon, some of us hung around, enjoying the light and sound show Mother Nature was putting on in the sky above. I’d intermittently snap a few pics, hoping to catch a bolt or two and as luck would have it, I managed to grab this capture of a series of bolts – I love the ‘curley Q’ in the big one.

I used a long, 30 second exposure to maximize my chances of getting something. That indeed worked although with the wind the flowers ended up being blurred. Nevertheless, I think it is kind of a cool capture.

Shocking sunflowers

August 22, 2019 by Tony Leave a Comment

Shocking sunflowers
Lightning pops over a field of sunflowers east of Denver, Colorado. (© Tony’s Takes)

A little bit of lightning fun on the plains of Colorado.

I was a bit late getting to this spot yesterday evening and missed much of the show. Thankfully, I did get there in time to get a few cool captures.

The thunderstorms were quite strong and very electrified sending many bolts to the ground. Throw in the orange glow of the setting sun and the flowers and it was pretty neat.

I don’t have a lightning trigger so just have to keep snapping pics repeatedly hoping lightning pops at the right time.

Lightning pops over a field of sunflowers east of Denver, Colorado. (© Tony’s Takes)
Lightning pops over a field of sunflowers east of Denver, Colorado. (© Tony’s Takes)

Storms over the Collegiate Peaks

June 27, 2019 by Tony Leave a Comment

Storms over the Collegiate Peaks
Thunderstorms roll over the Collegiate Peaks and toward Buena Vista, Colorado below. (© Tony’s Takes)

I am back from some much needed R & R in San Isabel National Forest overlooking Buena Vista, Colorado. I didn’t take many pics as family and relaxation were higher priorities but the skies in many of the evenings demanded attention.

This one from this past Friday. Mount Princeton is front and center. If I am not mistaken, Mount Yale is the tallest peak to the right then moving back left of Princeton, Mount Antero and Mount Shavano are the two most prominent on that side.

No matter their names, the view was awesome! Oh, and believe it or not, the next night we had snow!

In the wake of the storm

June 3, 2019 by Tony Leave a Comment

In the wake of the storm
A passing thunderstorm in Adams County, Colorado. (© Tony’s Takes)

June means severe weather season here in Colorado and that can make for some fun afternoons. Today, we had a nice thunderstorm move through and, thankfully, no big hail.

After the storm passed, the clouds to the east looked awesome with bits of mammatus mixed in with the formations.

I tried my best to get some lightning shots but failed. It seemed no matter which way I pointed my camera, the bolts were the opposite way. 😉

A passing thunderstorm in Adams County, Colorado. (© Tony’s Takes)
A passing thunderstorm in Adams County, Colorado. (© Tony’s Takes)

Thunderstorm towers over the Great Plains

May 7, 2019 by Tony Leave a Comment

Thunderstorm towers over the Great Plains
A severe thunderstorm towers over a windmill and the Great Plains near Simla, Colorado. (© Tony’s Takes)

A throwback image taken in June 2012. Yesterday we got our first taste of severe weather for the year and while it didn’t deliver much more than heavy rain and small hail, it certainly got my adrenaline pumping. 

I haven’t been able to do much storm chasing at all in recent years. I go to work very early in the morning and coming home at midnight after a chase to the Colorado / Kansas border and then functioning at work the next day just isn’t possible.

I do need to try to head out on those ‘backyard’ chases close to home as oftentimes you don’t have to go far to at least get some nice storm structures.

This particular chase was near Simla, Colorado in an area near the Palmer Divide that is famous for seeing gorgeous storms. The storm did generate an EF-2 tornado which we only saw briefly as it was heavily wrapped in rain. While I didn’t get any salvageable images of that, the structure of the storm was impressive.

Panoramic nighttime lightning illuminated thunderstorm

January 27, 2018 by Tony Leave a Comment

Oh what a night! June 11, 2015 found me in far southeastern Colorado chasing storms. We chased this beast for a long ways and while it never did drop a tornado, it did give us some nice looks.

This image is taken after dark and those clouds are being lit up the intra-cloud lightning. It was an absolute non-stop light show.

If you look close, you can see a small town almost directly under the stormcell. It dropped baseball size hail and the straight-line winds downed powerlines.

Nighttime lightning illuminates the structure of a supercell thunderstorm in southeastern Colorado.  (© Tony’s Takes)
Nighttime lightning illuminates the structure of a supercell thunderstorm in southeastern Colorado. (© Tony’s Takes)

Sunset thunderstorm

December 7, 2017 by Tony Leave a Comment

Going back into the archives for this one to June 2012. On a tornado chase near Simla, Colorado. The chase did yield one funnel cloud directly overhead and then a very rain-wrapped, obscured twister on the ground. Unfortunately, we were too far away to get ourselves in position to get a good look at the tornado. This was taken not long after when we stopped to watch the impressive thunderstorm as it wound down and obscured the setting sun.

A thunderstorm winds down as the sun sets on the Colorado plains. (© Tony’s Takes)
A thunderstorm winds down as the sun sets on the Colorado plains. (© Tony’s Takes)

Rolling thunder on the Great Plains

May 30, 2017 by Tony Leave a Comment

Work and life’s commitments don’t allow me to storm chase near as often as I would like. However, every now and then, I get lucky and Mother Nature brings a storm right to me. Such was the case this past Friday as I went for a photo drive after work.

A nice little thunderstorm popped up and while the storm itself wasn’t anything extraordinary, it did make for a very pretty scene. This same storm cell would go on to intensify and drop hail up to an inch in diameter only about 10 miles from where this picture was taken.

A thunderstorm rolls across the plains northeast of Denver, Colorado. (© Tony’s Takes)
A thunderstorm rolls across the plains northeast of Denver, Colorado. (© Tony’s Takes)
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