April 3rd, 2008
Colin Miller, Zack Biggs and I chase storms from near Ardmore Oklahoma all the way East to Paris, TX. The evening ended with an amazing lightning show just North of Paris.
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Left Dallas with Zack and Colin around 1 pm. We intiially targetted the Red River area just north of Gainsville, as there was a lot of instability and clearing in this area. We arrived in Marietta, just north of the Red River, as a messy HP storm was racing East overhead. We oberved a small mesocyclone, and a load of other chasers in the area. The storm moved rapidly to our East, and formed into a large line as it approached Durant.
We decided to tail the HP mess to the East, and so we shot East on 32/70 towards Durant. When we arrived in Durant, we were greeted with a messy view of the backside of the cells to our East. They weren't very organized, but the turbulance of the clouds made for some really neat pictures. We photographed here for a while before again deciding to head East on 70 towards Hugo. We were hoping to capture some lightning shots of the storms as they moved away.
The drive along 70 was fun, with almost continuous lightning in front of us on the horizon. When we reached Hugo, we did a radar check and saw a severe warned cluster of storms that was heading right towards Paris. The wording on the severe warning mentioned "Extreme Lightning" activity, so we shot South on 271 into Paris. Arriving there, we were greeted with one of the most amazing light shows I have ever witnessed (video below). The lightning was insane, but there was no thunder at all. It was earily beautiful to watch. We filmed for close to 15 minutes before meeting and talking to a friendly LEO. They told us of a spot a bit further to the East with good visibility, so we headed there and shot some lightning.
A very long chase day with an amazing ending. :)
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Left Dallas with Zack and Colin around 1 pm. We intiially targetted the Red River area just north of Gainsville, as there was a lot of instability and clearing in this area. We arrived in Marietta, just north of the Red River, as a messy HP storm was racing East overhead. We oberved a small mesocyclone, and a load of other chasers in the area. The storm moved rapidly to our East, and formed into a large line as it approached Durant.
We decided to tail the HP mess to the East, and so we shot East on 32/70 towards Durant. When we arrived in Durant, we were greeted with a messy view of the backside of the cells to our East. They weren't very organized, but the turbulance of the clouds made for some really neat pictures. We photographed here for a while before again deciding to head East on 70 towards Hugo. We were hoping to capture some lightning shots of the storms as they moved away.
The drive along 70 was fun, with almost continuous lightning in front of us on the horizon. When we reached Hugo, we did a radar check and saw a severe warned cluster of storms that was heading right towards Paris. The wording on the severe warning mentioned "Extreme Lightning" activity, so we shot South on 271 into Paris. Arriving there, we were greeted with one of the most amazing light shows I have ever witnessed (video below). The lightning was insane, but there was no thunder at all. It was earily beautiful to watch. We filmed for close to 15 minutes before meeting and talking to a friendly LEO. They told us of a spot a bit further to the East with good visibility, so we headed there and shot some lightning.
A very long chase day with an amazing ending. :)
