FAQ: Chasing the Southwestern Monsoon

[Will Wilkens]

Ok, I couldn't resist, here are my pics from my AZ chase trip, July 24 and 25 in AZ:

7/24/09 - locations noted

US 95 northeast of Yuma:

South of Gila Bend, near Ajo:

------
7/25/09 - locations noted

Redrock (lightning taken by my chase partner, Gerry Kerns):

Casa Grande:

Coolidge:

 

[Pat Darrow]

I've seen your photos a lot and still can't get enough of them. Nice job. That's chasing the monsoon at its finest

 

[Susan Strom]

Nice job Will, a semi in a flash flood! You don't see that every day lol

I'm still getting mine processed and scanned (slide film) and the season is not over yet! Here's one from one of my favorite spots, the Goldfield ghost town.

 

[Tony Laubach]

Happily I am able to say I have been able to get down here again this year, but sadly I haven't had near the results of my 2007 trip. Hunkered down in Mesa right now after striking out along I-10 this evening and will probably embark back east into NM tomorrow to shave off a bit of our drive to Denver on Tuesday.

Gorgeous sunset tonight, and would've been a PERFECT backdrop to the lightning had we been able to bribe her into dropping a few bolts..

Ah well, just THRILLED I am able to get down here again!

 

[Will Wilkens]

Had an EXCELLENT chase today! Hit two severe storms along I-40, first one 40 miles east of Barstow, Ca about 5pm, then the second one 35 miles west of Needles, Ca around 7pm. Both storms began to rotate and had classic stacked plate meso structure and shelf clouds! The first storm even had a non rotating wall cloud! When I got into the second storm, I stayed on it well into darkness and had some of the most intense and gorgeous lightning you can imagine.

Here is one of the bolts I captured during storm #2:

Here's what storm #2 looked like as I was approaching it. This is looking east, right at sunset, just at the time it went severe warned:

 

[Susan Strom]

Wonderful multi-branched lightning strike Will! Very nice.

I saw in the Day 1 yesterday that a slight risk was called for in the far eastern California deserts near the AZ state line. Quartzsite was rocked lastnight. But the Day 1 has changed to include more of Arizona, and the slight risk is taken out.

Tony you're in Mesa? You're only 20 minutes from Superstition Mountain. (storm magnet). There is a 20% chance tonight for the Valley, and in the eastern mountains of AZ conditions are usually more favorable.

I can feel it in the air today.

 

[Susan Strom]

Oh yeah, one thing that is cool on the way back into New Mexico. About 50 miles west of the little town of Socorro you'll find the VLA/Very Large Array, that valley full of satellite dishes that was used in the movie Contact. That would be a cool thing to shoot with lightning.

 

[Tony Laubach]

Oh yeah, one thing that is cool on the way back into New Mexico. About 50 miles west of the little town of Socorro you'll find the VLA/Very Large Array, that valley full of satellite dishes that was used in the movie Contact. That would be a cool thing to shoot with lightning.

We tried exactly that... got down there just before sunset and some storms were barely scraping by just south of there... unfortunately they didn't make it to the VLA, but we sure tried. Was a beautiful trip out US-60, especially in eastern AZ. Breath-taking to say the least!

 

[Susan Strom]

Things are looking good for the Arizona desert for the weekend. I had a great chase Monday night and last night too, a 55-60dbz cell that dropped off the Mogollon Rim. I am looking fwd to a long weekend of chasing!

 

[Will Wilkens]

We had some suprise cells pop up in my area on Wedenesday, that went severe, rotated, and produced a weak landspout in Perris, about 10 miles east of my home (local news showed a camera phone shot of it from a viewer, but I have yet to find it posted anywhere. I was on the freeway rushing to get home, but got home only to enjoy about 30 minutes of what was left of it before collapsing.

Here's a pic I took with my blackberry of the tornado statement scrolling across the tv screen......

 

[Christopher Jacobs]

I just got back from a week long trip across the SW deserts. I was in Rocky Point, MX from Aug 28th to Aug 31st, and Yuma, AZ from Aug 31st to Sep 3rd. The trip started off extremely hot and dry, with temperatures 115+ on the drive down to Rocky Point. We did not encounter any storm activity while in MX, but did see some amazing sunsets from passing debris clouds. The atmosphere began to juice up a bit while we were in Yuma. We were greeted to a fanastic light show just before sunrise on Sep 1st. Scattered thunderstorms were forming off of a E to W moving outflow boundary. The storms quickly faded at dawn. Unfortunately, I did not have a chance to shoot any lightning (which would have been difficult with my point-and-shoot anyway). Isolated storms formed to the north of Yuma on Sep 2nd around sunset, and I took a few shots of those. Will, I was watching that storm near hemet on radar and was drooling. The radar return looked great on it for a while, but yea, it dissapated quick. I was hoping for some similar action on my drive back on the 3rd, but there seemed to be more of a cap in place across the San Diego Mountains.

Anyway, it was a very enjoyable trip. I was thankful to be able to finally see some monsoon action after a pretty quiet season in California. I'm exhausted after 7 days in 110+ degree weather

A few opportunistic photos with my point-and-shoot below:

Rocky Point MX Sunset, Aug 29th


Isolated storm looking for that last bit of daylight, Yuma AZ, Sep 2nd


Full moon rising over debris clouds at sunset, Yuma AZ, Sep 2nd


Evening storms, Yuma AZ, Sep 2nd. I could see CG's and CC's shooting out of this storm from where I was.


This looked like a fire breathing dragon to us. What do you think? 15 miles east of Ocotillo, CA, Sep 3rd



Southern California Storm Chaser
http://www.geocities.com/altus5/ (being re-built)
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[mark humpage]

Will those last 2 shots are stunning. I don't suppose you have an iphone?

 

[Will Wilkens]

Mark, no I don't have an iphone. I took those shots with a Nikon D40.

BTW, my sources tell me that the alleged tornado sighting near Perris on Wed was just a gustnado, so the report was tossed out.

 

[Paul Sherman]

Nice job Will, a semi in a flash flood! You don't see that every day lol

I'm still getting mine processed and scanned (slide film) and the season is not over yet! Here's one from one of my favorite spots, the Goldfield ghost town.

Susan

Absolutely love the Mining Ghost town picture, was that the place you took us last year to the east of Pheonix, now I know what it would have looked like with a Desert Storm in the background! Loving the pictures on this thread, the purples and reds with the Lightning are stunning blends of colour.

Paul Sherman

 

[Susan Strom]

Hey Paul!
It wasn't on our first shoot, when we went to the town of Picacho/Red Rock, where we shot lightning over the locomotives in the Central Deserts. (remember when that critter was on my head lol) That area is about 1.5 hrs south of Phoenix.

Then the next day we did our little deep strike (Globe, then out past the San Carlos Apache community then on to Safford, Willcox, back through Tucson, up through the Central Deserts and home. Remember the 8 hour jaunt? Just as we started out and headed east on Highway 60 (straight east), before we got to the edges of town I remarked about a mountain called Superstition Mountain, where there is a ghost town at the base, and where people in the old west days have gone into the mountain in search of the Lost Dutchman's gold, and some people never came out. If you remember that (I was on the 2-way) then the ghost town I was referring to is the one in the picture. It is called Goldfield. We didn't go into it though, I just remarked about it as we passed Superstition Mountain.

This is not the same place as about 4 hours later into our trek I had pointed out some haunted mesas near Safford, and someone I think in the Virgin car said that he wanted to film there instead of the lightning lol. That place is way further out than Superstition Mountain. That was right before someone said that she didn't see sunsets like that in London.

Yesterday actually, I just chased back out there to Globe, that crazy windy road, for about 2 hours looking for more funky mining stuff for my storms.

What a kick huh That was fun too.

cheers, Susan