I tell people I went Storm Chasing in Arizona and they’re thinking of the movie Twister where people are tracking tornados and driving crazy to catch them.
In Arizona it’s chasing the monsoonal weather that comes up from Mexico in the summertime. The goal is to catch the lightning without getting wet. Turns out that is not as easy as it sounds. You want to get close enough so the “sparks” are the major part of the image, but not so close that any proceeding rain gets your camera gear wet.
I learned this from Ken Sklute of Serendipity Visuals. He is local to Arizona and besides being a professional photographer he is a professional hot air balloon pilot, so who better to learn weather tracking from?
We spent 5 days, really evenings by the time we got where we wanted to go, from San Carlos/Peridot in the East to Tucson’s Saguaro National Park to the South and a few points in between. We encountered rainbows, rain, hail, wind, lightning and sunsets as only Arizona can provide.
Photo Gallery
Locations
As noted by the yellow boxes
