Severe Storm Photography from Spring 2005
All photos copyrighted by Dave Chapman
May 13th - May 17th:
| May 13th: Early stage of storm northeast of Paducah, in central Texas. |
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| Large wall cloud near Crowell, Texas, but no rotation. |
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| Outflow begins to take over. |
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| Storm shows signs of rotation, with cloud-to-ground lightning bolts (CGs) becoming very active near my location. It is my first close-up experience with a highly electrified storm. Second only to driving, CGs are a big danger in storm chasing. |
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| Sunset looking back at the storm as I drive west to Lubbock. |
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| May 17th: Strong convection southwest of North Platte, Nebraska. |
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| I intercept the storm as it approaches North Platte. Not sure of storm direction, I stay on the southern edge of North Platte where I have a somewhat obstructed view of an apparent supercell. |
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| After a few minutes, I determine the storm is moving NNE, so I drive through the city and get in position at a highway intersection a few miles north of town. But by this time the storm has become outflow-dominated. |
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| Small roll cloud develops at the edge of the gust front. |
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| As the gust front advances, tiny vortices and gustnadoes develop (storm spotters are trained to distinguish these relatively harmless whirlwinds from dangerous tornadoes). |
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| Gustnado. |
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| Ragged shelf cloud under the anvil. |
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| Dramatic skies under a marginally severe storm. |
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2005 Storm Pages:
Dave Chapman's Storm Chasing and Outdoor Photo Galleries