Tag Archives | Arizona

Late July/August Desert Thunder Tours

Every year we run our lightning tours. This year was an AMAZING period in Arizona while we were there! Of the 15 days we chased there, we had storms, often severe, on 14 of those days. From incredible lightning west of Tucson to phenomenal lighting over the Grand Canyon, this year’s images are some of my favorites! There are many features in Arizona that are incredibly beautiful when a storm, lighting and rainbows are present. The saguaro cactus and other cactus varieties are amazing to photograph. Red rock canyons abound, and storms form usually over the higher terrain before thunderstorm outflows push onto the desert floors and generate more storms due to lifting warm and moist air upward. We hope you enjoy these images as much as we did witnessing them firsthand! You can join us too on these incredible adventures. Word or caution, these tours sell out FAST! Enjoy!

 

Desert Thunder Tour, early August

Our 2021 Desert Thunder tour scored big this year, chasing nearly every day. A very favorable monsoon pattern was in place with a 4 corners high stationary the entire time, pumping easterly winds in the mid levels and surface moisture out of Mexico. Daily rounds of storms gave us some amazing scenes, and throw in the cactus varieties and mountains, and you have a winner! All guests got some incredible photos! It is nice being able to base yourself at ONE hotel to come back to each night and the Tucson airport Residence Inn is a great one! Please enjoy the pics and if you are interested in this “lightning and landscape” tour, check out the website! It is shown at the bottom of the list of tours.

June 28th – July 3rd Photo Tour #3 Chases

Our Photo Tour #3 had one of the worst weather patterns of 2021!  This period usually produces great severe weather, supercells, lightning and tornadoes. Not the case for 2021. Since the pattern was dominated by a massive record breaking ridge of high pressure resulting in sunny hot days, we decided to take the group to Arizona to photograph monsoon storms. Much better than doing the park scene! We DO go the extra mile to at least find a storm, any storm, that is worthy to photograph! We spent most of the tour around the Tucson area as an active monsoon had set in. This is the first time we have ever taken a storm chasing tour to Arizona to chase in June! Some of the lightning we captured was super, and there was also a marginal supercell near Stafford. Upon our return to the Denver area on the last day of the tour, we did intercept a supercell just east of town.  Enjoy the pics! We hope the weather pattern will be back to normal for 2022 Photo Tour #3!

July 29 – August 12 Desert Thunder Tours

Each year, in conjunction with our sister website, www.southwestphotographytours.com, we spend 2 weeks in Arizona conducting our popular Desert Thunder Tours. We keep these as small one van tours, with 6 guests. The Arizona monsoon season peaks in July and August, with southern Arizona receiving the brunt of the thunderstorm activity. We had a very successful monsoon season in 2017, with storms on 75% of the days! We travel anywhere we believe the most intense, and pretty, storms will occur.  We spent time in southeast, southern and central Arizona, and even in southwest New Mexico. We photographed storms over Saguaro National Park, Kitt Peak, the desert floors, Sedona, Cathedral Rock, the Chiricahuas, the Superstition Mountains and many others. Some of the most spectacular lightning in the country occurs here each season! Below are many photos of the events we captured while on tour this season. We hope you enjoy the photos and we hope to see you with us on tour in the years ahead!

August Monsoon Storms

After our storm chasing tours are over, we head to Arizona to run our monsoon storm tours and workshops. You can find these at our www.southwestphotographytours.com website. Here are some of the incredible images we had this year, including a tornado near Wilcox, AZ! We get a lot of guests from our Silver Lining Tours family that come on our monsoon storm tours, which are called “Desert Thunder”. We’d love to have you! Check them out on our other website.

 

 

August 19-25 Flagstaff, Arizona Lightning – Northern Arizona

Here is a select group of images taken during our second photography workshop tour in northern Arizona. Between the insanely gorgeous landscape and the storms/lightning, it was an amazing week of photography! Please click on an image if you would like to see a larger photo. You can also find out more about these tours at www.southwestphotographytours.com , which is our other tour website.

The Desert Monsoons of August

Caryn and I were fortunate to spend a few days in Arizona to film the monsoon storms. Well, I filmed, she shopped, but did film the beautiful cactus in bloom. Check out some of these photos for what the deserts have to offer in late summer. Magnificent place! A photographer’s delight! This will be a VERY LONG page, so be prepared!

August 10-17 Tucson, Arizona Lightning

Each year we run two workshop tours for monsoon storms and landscapes. One is based in Tucson and the other in Flagstaff,, Arizona. Here are several images taken during the first tour, from Tucson. It was an amazing 8 days for nonstop storms!! Please enjoy the photos and click on any if you would like to see a large one.  You can also find out more about these tours at www.southwestphotographytours.com , which is our other tour website.

Late August Northern Arizona Lightning

Late August continued our monsoon storm lightning tours, as evidenced by the many images below. If you want more information on our High Desert Thunder tour (or our other southwest tours) check out www.southwestphotographytours.com . There are also a couple landscape images taken on this tour, including Grand Falls (the Chocolate Niagra), which is a very rare sight!