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Chasing storms yields two windmills

Leave a Comment / By / January 5, 2021

Yesterday I was out in Northeastern New Mexico to be ready to photograph possible severe storms that were forecasted in the area and the weather didn’t disappoint.

“Two Windmills and a Thunderstorm”
New Mexico
(Click on above photo for a larger view & to purchase prints)

The photo above was photographed after two back-to-back powerful storms brought rain, wind, and hail (and almost a tornado) to an area along I25 north of Las Vegas, NM.

With my colleague Christine Hauber driving her Kia Rio (not the typical storm chasing car mind you) with me in the passenger seat monitoring radar using my favorite weather app RadarScope, I was safely able to put us in position to photograph the storms and avoid the nearly golfball sized hail that had fallen in the area.

Once the storms passed we were treated to spectacular light with the thunderstorm slowly rolling away. We were lucky to find this scene with two windmills and the thunderstorm behind them before the magical light weakened, allowing me to create my favorite photo from our storm chasing adventures that day.

Here are some snapshots and video of the storm from my iphone:

We drove almost an hour and a half to catch up with this slow moving storm as it crossed I25 just north of Las Vegas, New Mexico. Almost all northbound traffic stopped and pulled over as the storm was crossing. There was some slight rotation in the clouds but the rotation never materialized into a tornado. Had it, I would have been in perfect position.
We drove almost an hour and a half to catch up with this slow moving storm as it crossed I25 just north of Las Vegas, New Mexico. Almost all northbound traffic stopped and pulled over as the storm was crossing. There was some slight rotation in the clouds but the rotation never materialized into a tornado. Had it, I would have been in perfect position.

Hail and heavy rain made for a noisy drive along the frontage road heading south next to I25

Hail reached nearly golf ball size - fortunately this hail fell shortly before we drove into the area.
Hail reached nearly golf ball size – fortunately this hail fell shortly before we drove into the area.
Earlier we had seen a snowplow out - this is the reason why as hail covers I25 southbound north of Las Vegas, New Mexico.
Earlier we had seen a snowplow out – this is the reason why as hail covers I25 southbound north of Las Vegas, New Mexico.

Photo Details

Details on my Two Windmills and a Thunderstorm photo above:

Photographed hand-held with my Sony a7R, Metabones III adapter, and a Canon 70-200mm lens at ISO 125, 1/250 at f13. The RAW file was processed in Capture One Pro and further enhanced in Perfect Photo Suite 8.

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