Thursday, June 07, 2012

Storm chasing

Retreat

It's been a quiet spring and early summer here in northern Illinois so far, weather wise. Not too many storms brewing up this way. A lot of good my online storm spotter training has done for me, huh? Storm spotter training has taught me the best position from which to view a storm (useful for photography) as well as the worst. Best position also means safest position.

We recently had a small storm system move through late in the day. I followed it on radar via my iPhone as it approached from the west and mapped a route to intercept it (also on the iPhone -- what a great tool. Thanks, Mr. Jobs). My wife and I then drove through the storm and followed it as it headed east. The image above shows the storm retreating over some northern Illinois farmland late in the day. Late afternoon sunlight played across the open fields as menacing clouds snarled overhead.

This image is a combination of two pictures. One was exposed form the sky, the other for the field, then both images were combined on computer.