In May, 2012 I was in Sioux City, Iowa, trying to get north and east as a severe storm fired up. Unfortunately, I was stuck in a Friday afternoon traffic jam so I missed the tornado, but I did eventually get on the storm and shot this picture. More of the story here: http://controlgeek.net/2012/5/5/more-chasing-in-nebraska-and-iowa.html
On May 2, 2012, I was on a storm near Grand Island, Nebraska, and then saw the storm in the picture pop up on the radar to the south, near Davenport. As I raced south, the storm got a tornado warning. The sun was setting and those clouds represented a wall of hail blocking me and the tornado, so I figured I'd just shoot a couple pictures from the north side of the storm and then head off northeast--well away from the storm--to my room for the night. I was driving along a back road thinking "I need something in the foreground" when I came across this pond. As beautiful as the storm looks from this angle, around that time it was actually making an EF-1 tornado that damaged several structures near Davenport (link here). I eventually dropped further south got on the updraft of the storm after sunset, and as I was out of the car and away from the radar, shooting pictures, I waited too long and the storm morphed into a line that chased me all the way back to my hotel in Council Bluffs, Iowa. It was pretty hairy, racing along dirt roads, watching the incredible lightning show in my rear view mirror, and listening to the radio as a local station kept people updated on the storm. I could only imagine how scary all of this must have been before radar. More shots and writeup here.
A truck drives towards an ominous severe thunderstorm in Minnesota.
