Cover Story

Story and Photos by John Clement

Ahh Spring... New beginnings, flowers, green grass, warm temperature and STORMS!

Since 2015 my daughter Colleen, my youngest of 4 kids, has enjoyed storm chasing and watching. At a young age she would wake me in the middle of the night to tell me there was lightning over the hills south of our home in Kennewick and she would be dressed in a flash ready to go! We have managed to take 4 trips into the midwest and southwest to capture the powerful cloud formations, lightning and a few funnel clouds with the landscapes. These images here are just a few from our 15-20K miles of driving chasing severe weather. It is not for the faint of heart. We could probably do a book of stories from our adventures but space doesn’t allow. From Montana to Wyomings Devils Tower, Nebraska hill country, Kansas flat lands, Oklahoma panhandle, Texas super cells and New Mexico monsoons we have seen a lot of weather!

Devils Tower Storm-Wyoming probably the worst storm we have been caught in. This was the last image before torrential rains and ground pounding lightning over ran us and continued all night with several tornadoes touching down from this big storm.

Colleen standing on top of Old Storm Shelter in western Kansas-One of many deserted properties we came across on our travels across the midwest.

Another deserted home as a storm developes to the west of the property.

First Christian Church Storm Clouds- central Kansas 2016

Deserted in Kansas- Colleen spotted this old farmstead way off the road as we were heading to Texas storm outbreak from Nebraska.

Chimney Rock National Monument -near Scotts Bluff Nebraska as a morning storm approaches.

Cows at the Monument Rocks Chalk Pyramids- in central Kansas near Oakley. Great sea food resturant there. This storm produced a tornado 2 hours later.

Getting ready to Touch Down- NE of Aurora Colorado

Kansas Sunset

Tornado and the Bow- as we are waiting for the tow truck stuck on a muddy side road.

Monsoon Strike New Mexico- as we encounter a developing storm just north of the Mexican border. Border patrol stopped and warned us not to be in this area after dark and it was a main smuggling route. We encountered numerous border patrol vehical on our retreat north to Interstate 10.

Ghost Tree- staying away from this storm producing baseball size hail and a tornado in NE Colorado and western Kansas.

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