Each year we conduct lightning tours in Arizona during monsoons. This year we were there the first week of August. Despite a far from favorable weather pattern nature provided some pretty storms with excellent lightning! We traveled over southeastern Arizona and occasionally into southwestern New Mexico on various days. However the majority of the time we spent in Cochise and Santa Cruz counties this year. Temperatures were extremely hot with daytime highs from 105-115. Moisture was on the marginal side with dewpoints in the upper 40s to mid 50s. However enough was available to generate some instability to produce these storms. Enjoy the pics!
June 6th White Sands, New Mexico Lightning
There wasn’t a lot of hope on June 6th, so we took the group to White Sands National Park in southern New Mexico for some general thunderstorm formation in hopes of catching some lightning over the dunes. Nature did not disappoint! We arrived to developing storms west of the park. A couple hours later, stormed were forming over the park as outflow from the western and southern storms moved into the area, lifting the air and generating storms, some severe! Nature is such an artist as several lightning strikes occurred over and near the park. A fun day and many of the guests had never been to White Sands. Needless to say, I bet they go back again! Enjoy the photos!
June 25th-27th, 2011 Storms
Here is a compilation of a few days worth of strong/severe storm photos. June 25th-27th weren’t spectacular by any means, but the period did give some pretty storm photography opportunities.
June 5th, 2003 New Mexico Gustnadofest
Not a great set up this day as storms formed north of an advancing cold front. These storms had embedded supercells in a line and they produced many photogenic gustnadoes. One such “spin up” actually had cloud base rotation and would be considered a weak tornado. Later, as the haboob formed, a large wall of red dirt was seen from many miles away.
