The Day It Falls
When I first moved to Vegas, my old boss told me about monsoon season "It only rains 4 inches per year in Vegas, and you should be here on the day it falls!" I always think of him when I see a sight like this.
This thunderstorm was a harbinger of things to come. As daylight faded, a group of fairly benign storms were grouped near Alamo, NV. Losing their surface heating, they collapsed and kicked outflow boundaries into a moist airmass that was primed for rain. I was along for the ride, hoping to bolster my lightning image portfolio. Alas, the storms quickly developed monster rain shafts, with the lighting remaining stubbornly within. But oh, if only they hadn't!
The storms were prolific rain producers, flash flood warnings were all over the place, and I had to be careful to stay on major, well drained roads. However, there was lightning too, so much so that the strongest storms pulsed as if there was an internal strobe light within. If it wasn't for the heavy rain, I would likely have several photos of a lifetime from these storms! This went on for hours until the storms moved over the no-mans land of NW Arizona and I headed off to bed at 3am after a 10 hour long storm chase that was short on pictures, but still allowed me to witness some impressive storms.
The Day It Falls
When I first moved to Vegas, my old boss told me about monsoon season "It only rains 4 inches per year in Vegas, and you should be here on the day it falls!" I always think of him when I see a sight like this.
This thunderstorm was a harbinger of things to come. As daylight faded, a group of fairly benign storms were grouped near Alamo, NV. Losing their surface heating, they collapsed and kicked outflow boundaries into a moist airmass that was primed for rain. I was along for the ride, hoping to bolster my lightning image portfolio. Alas, the storms quickly developed monster rain shafts, with the lighting remaining stubbornly within. But oh, if only they hadn't!
The storms were prolific rain producers, flash flood warnings were all over the place, and I had to be careful to stay on major, well drained roads. However, there was lightning too, so much so that the strongest storms pulsed as if there was an internal strobe light within. If it wasn't for the heavy rain, I would likely have several photos of a lifetime from these storms! This went on for hours until the storms moved over the no-mans land of NW Arizona and I headed off to bed at 3am after a 10 hour long storm chase that was short on pictures, but still allowed me to witness some impressive storms.