A Perfect Way to Start & End a Week!

My week last week was bookended with some impressive storm structure. Sunday, April 19th gave me my 9th ever image to make it on Good Morning America the following day. My week was already made at that point. Everything after that this week has just been a bonus as far as I'm concerned. Nothing severe developed on Sunday, but I loved the structure.

Saturday, April 25th was a different story. Western Kentucky was expecting quite a bit of severe activity. I decided to drive to Henderson and wait for the storms to come to me. This gave me three options as the storms tracked eastward. Depending on how things developed, I could shoot up to Interstate 64 and track them toward Louisville, go north to Evansville, Indiana and track them along highway 66 toward Rockport & Tell City, or simply go east on the Audubon Parkway and track them toward Owensboro...which was how things played out.

I got most of my best storm shots about 5 miles east of Henderson, along the Audubon Parkway, including shots to the WSW of a storm cell that went tornado warned near Corydon, KY. The NWS ruled the damage caused as a microburst and not a tornado, but damage is damage. The warning being issued was a good call. It prevented me from attempting to shoot south ahead of it, which kept me safe. All I could see from my vantage point was the shelf cloud and heavy rain underneath. It reminded me a little of one of the rain/hail cores from my chase last June with Chris Conley near Union City, TN.

As busy as I was, I didn't capture any lightning stills, but I'm posting a few screen captures from video below. This was my first real outing tracking storms since my back surgery. For being out solo, I think I did ok. I was quite sore afterwards though. Keeping an eye on the weather, the road, on radar, and on your cameras is daunting when out solo. You have to prioritize. Naturally, driving safely comes first, followed by storm observation, then radar, then lastly, cameras.

I will be launching a limited edition print sale this Friday, March 1st. Sales from this print series will help me keep my camera gear maintained. I'll post a new blog about it on Friday. See you then!