July 11-14, 2026 Arizona Severe Storms

July 11-14, 2026 was our annual Great North Tornado Hunt tour. However, due to a sprawling ridge of high pressure which shut down northern plains chasing, we decided to take the tour to Arizona in search of severe monsoon thunderstorms. It did not disappoint!! We arrived early evening after a long days drive, only to find severe storms west of Tucson. We blasted out towards Kitt Peak as the sunset, just in time to catch the lightning show! Incredible cgs lit the sky for over an hour before weakening. On the 12th we encountered a cluster of severe storms near Sells, AZ that produced an amazing haboob! The wedge of blowing dirt was textbook! One of the best I’ve seen. On the 13th we needed to start our journey back to Denver, stopping for storms over Sedona, AZ. What a beautiful sight watching lightning striking the gorgeous red rock near town! We would have rather chased supercells and tornado in the northlands, but with the ridge in place it is always our motto to go where the weather takes us, regardless where that is! Enjoy the pics!

July 3, 2026 Eastern Colorado Severe Storms and Aurora Borealis

July 3rd was the final day of the photo tour and as such, we had to be back in Denver that night. After a CME hit earth, I knew there would be a geomagnetic storm that night, but didn’t think it would reach G3, with a Kp of 7!! Thunderstorms formed just before sunset and slowly pushed east of the Denver metro. As darkness grew, you could see the beginning of the aurora peeking through the clouds. I drove well east of town towards Bennett/Strasburg to get away from the intense city lights. What happened next was magical! The storms intensified and became severe for hail and wind, but on the back side of them as skies cleared, pillars or red, green and purple peeked through the clouds and made for a surreal scene! I was able to get several shots of the aurora and the glow of lightning, as well as a couple shots of cgs too! What a wild way to end the week!!! Enjoy the pics!

June 22, 2026 Northeast Colorado Tornado Warned Supercell

June 22nd took us to the Cheyenne Ridge along the Colorado/Nebraska border near Kimball. Storms formed on a convergence boundary there and immediately started spinning and became severe. One storm became dominant and an intense supercell. It was tornado warned off and on its entire life cycle, which lasted nearly 6 hours! The amount of air this supercell processed was astonishing, as inflow was being drawn in at 50-60mph! Blinding dirt occurred as it was lofted in the air due to dry soil conditions and into the updraft. Several times lowerings formed and spun hard, but nothing was able to focus long enough to produce a tornado. Giant hail softball to grapefruit sized fell as the storm maintained a steady state of intensity throughout the afternoon and evening. At times it became very photogenic as the updraft contained multiple striations showing rapid rotation and had the appearance of a huge soda can. One of the strongest supercells in Colorado in the past few years! Enjoy the pics!

June 17th Illinois Tornadic Supercells

This day had big potential, but one huge problem. Unusually strong mid level winds would cause storms to move near 60 mph, more resembling March than June. Dual outflow boundaries would also wreak havoc on which one to chase, but it became clear the southern one would produce. Tornado warned storms on the northern boundary, would eventually move right and interact with the south boundary and that’s when they became tornadic. With highway alignment and speed limits not being our friend, it was extremely difficult to stay up with any storm. We intercepted 5 different storms that were tornado warned and a couple produced. We started the day near Springfield, IL and ended west of Effingham, IL, chasing like crazy. Fun day, so many close opportunities, so little rewards unless you were able to be in the right place at the right time.

June 1, 2026 Last Chance, CO Tornado Warned Supercell

June 1st took us just east of our house in Colorado. A supercell formed near Denver and slowed moved, developed east and eventually became tornado warned near Bennett. Hail to baseball size occurred. A couple other supercells formed further east along a boundary just north of Last Chance and also became tornado warned. Due to the high based nature of the storms, there wasn’t a great threat of a tornado occurring. However, the structure was pretty and the lightning quite nice. They also produced hail to tennisball size and the moved east towards Akron, CO. Fun day, pretty storms!!!

May 31, 2026 Madison, Kansas Tornadic Supercell

Didn’t think much would happen in the daylight on May 31st. A strong capping inversion in place, as well as a mistimed upper wave seemed to lead to elevated late evening storms. Once in awhile though, nature loves to throw a wrench into things. By early evening initiation occurred along a boundary near Emporia, Kansas. An outflow boundary/dryline intersection would spawn a gorgeous supercell that rapidly intensified and even became briefly tornadic. As the storm slowly drifted east towards Madison, KS, the structure and electrification became quite pretty. Somewhere in the night skies a long snaking funnel came down that a couple of chasers said touched down. We stayed with it for awhile, but had to leave to get to our hotel in Salina, as we needed to be in Colorado the next day. A beautiful supercell, great structure and superb lightning!

May 24, 2026 Tabor, South Dakota Supercell

A long drive was in store for the Prime Time Minitour for day 1! Supercells were forecast to develop over southeast South Dakota. Tornado threat wasn’t much, but it was sure to be a structure day. It did not disappoint! The group left at the crack of dawn for the 650 mile drive up to South Dakota. They were able to see the entire development of the best storm of the day near Tabor. Structure got better as the storm matured, drifting slowly southeast. After a few hours of viewing, it was time to call it a day and get ready for another chase. Just a beautiful higher based supercell! Worthy of the trip!

May 22, 2026 Abernathy/Floydada, Texas Tornadic Supercells

Interesting set up this day. Old outflow boundaries were present in the Texas south plains and caprock. Although dewpoints were only in the 50s, with temperatures in the 80s, enough instability and shear were present to develop storms. One such storm formed near the Plainview area along a boundary that contained low 60s dewpoints. We knew this was out storm! We stayed with this for a couple of hours as it developed into a pretty supercell with that nice sculpted structure from the east. Later, storms developed near Lubbock and moved north. Other high based storms developed behind our supercell and all 3 collided north of Lubbock. We were on the east side still, with no true reason to go behind the storm (typically not a favorable place to watch!), but a fluke occurred and produced a 2-3 minute dusty, weak tornado behind our storm! I wouldn’t have changed anything in the way we chased this, as this is usually the best view of a supercell. A couple of chasers caught the tornado as they blasted south to try and get around the south side of our storm from behind and basically were fortunate to witness this dirt bomb. Funny day, still like how we chased it but did witness a landspout tornado during its lifetime.

May 18th Northern Kansas Tornadic Supercells

May 18th was a good set up in Kansas. An outflow boundary laid across north of I-70 and a dryline stretched north/south along US highway 81. A significant supercell formed north of Salina and moved northeast, producing at least a couple brief tornadoes. Other supercells formed along the triple point and also became tornado warned. We chased SEVEN different supercells that had tornado warnings. The biggest problem this day wasn’t just the fact there was a lot of seeding going on, it was the shear number of chasers that were in the area. Sooner or later there will come a day when a large tornado hits a line of chasers and causes a lot of problems. Sometimes, it pays to stay back a bit and let the chaser hoards get close. But, great shear an 70 dewpoints certainly allowed for numerous tornado warned supercells to form. A few weak tornadoes did occur, and a few look a likes also that were reported as tornadoes, and were not. Enjoy the pics please!!

May 17, 2026 St Libory, Nebraska Violent Tornado

May 17th had a lot going for it. Great shear, good moisture and instability and a triple point just to the west of Grand Island, Nebraska would set the stage for intense supercell development. As storms formed near the triple point, they were just on the cool side of the boundary. Anchoring in that spot, one cell latched on to it and started to spin. Soon a tornado warning was issued. As we had to reposition, the storm quickly became tornadic and produced a high end EF3 tornaddo near the small town of St Libory. We couldn’t get back in front of it and had to watch the tornado from the poor contrast side to the south. Soon the storm rapidly weakened and we dropped south to chase other tornado warned storms. A wild day and some crazy moments. Our hearts and prayers go out to those affected by this strong tornado.

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