Just how away far can you see a storm?

[Marc R. O'Leary]

My best long distance lightning capture to date:

 

[Marc R. O'Leary]

I have a couple screen shot of what may or may not have been a tornado at super long distance. I'll have to hunt down the actual files, but from the storm reports, it would have been somewhere between Woodrow and Arickaree...so thats 40-60 miles from where I was shooting.

Crappy screen shot of a screen#1: full image


Crappy zoomed in on the camera screen shot of the screen:

 

[James K]

@Mark Egan:
Considering that's a phone picture from 70 miles, it turned out pretty good!

@Jeff Duda:
That was kinda the thought - to have an idea of how far you could see a storm under 'good conditions'

@Randy Jennings:
Good points to make there!
I went out a few nights ago figuring I could see lightning in storms northeast of me (at a distance closer than others I've seen...but nope! There was a band of clouds between me & the storms, so nothing seen. .lol. )

I saw my first wall cloud last Friday..approxametly 20 miles away! (wasn't even out chasing, just saw a dark storm on my way home from a store with my mother & looked closely at iw when there was an open section between shops & trees/houses a bit farther along)
Now I wish I woulda had her stop in a nearby park so I coulda tried to get a few pictures (how clearly visible it was, might have turned out fairly well using zoom).


@Marc R. O'Leary:
Great lightning shot! Looking at where that is in your radar grab (and assuming it was a totally clear night), I would have been able to see flashes in the clouds from that storm...from 90+ miles away.
Pretty cool on the possible tornado. look forward to seeing the actual photo if you find the files..

 

[JamesCaruso]

Even in my ”non-Plains,” suburban Philadelphia town, I was able to see this severe storm from about 50-60 miles away this past Monday night. A rare sight around here.

 

[Warren Faidley]

I remember Marty Feely telling me he could see the top of my Miami, TX "Twister" supercell back in May of 1994 from between LBB and MAF. Using the measuring tool on Radar Scope, that would be about 210 miles. I also remember chasers in OKC saying they could see the storm, which would be about 160 miles away. I believe the storm topped out at over 55k at one point.

I find Marty's sighting quite amazing because he could see the storm even with the anvil spreading away from his line of sight. You could have a storm many miles away and if the anvil is spreading out towards your location, then it skews the actual distance you are "seeing the storm."

 

[Ben Mitchell]

This is an image I took at "Sandy Hill" summer camp in Maryland. I believe that this storm was somewhere around 50 to 80 miles away.

 

[Jeff Wright]

Now, you could see blue jets and sprites from storms over the horizon…

 

[James K]

I think there was something to the talk about the air being clearer due Covid to shutdowns last year. (well atleast until all the wildfires really got going!). This year visibility didn't seem as good. (which may have been the fact traffic here was back to being normal, or simply a matter of timing with wildfire smoke)

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@Warren Faidley:
That's some amazing distance!

@Jeff Wright:
I'd really love to know what it takes to see those!
Any idea how bright they are? and/or how hard they are to see?
(I'm assuming its only a few rare storms that generate them too..)

 

[Ben Mitchell]

View attachment 22371
This is an image I took at "Sandy Hill" summer camp in Maryland. I believe that this storm was somewhere around 50 to 80 miles away.

I did a little more research on this image and the radar at the time, and it turns out this storm was 160 miles away, just really huge, and the position of the sun made it clearly visible (Sunset)

 

[Thomas S]

Took this back on June 2th 2019 in Eppelheim, Germany.
The left part of the cloud is 200miles away while the far right part is 240miles away located over Utrecht in the Netherlands.
Satellit nature-Bild vom 02.06.2019, 21:00 Uhr - Deutschland for the sattelite view

 

[Rick Schmidt]

Thomas---What focal length lens were you using?

 

[Thomas S]

The focal length is 75mm

 

[Mike Smith]

My most unusual experience in this regard was during the JLN Tornado -- as seen from the Bazaar Cattle Crossing on the Kansas Turnpike, approximately 130 miles away. I could see the storm on the horizon with unusual detail, even cloud-to-ground lightning strikes (although not to the surface). There were two photographers, one with a tripod, set up photographing the usual sight. Unfortunately, as I was by myself didn't feel it was safe to stop.

My guess has always been that the dry air and subsidence behind the storm allowed for the amazing visibility.

 

[Jeff Wright]

With NASA’s SOFIA on the chopping block…I wonder if that optics laden 747 could image a whole tornadic thunderstorm at great distance as well.

 

[Ben Mitchell]

Here's another case of a far away storm