TODAY - 15 May, 2010
Spectacular pictures of tornadoes,
supercells and lightning by storm chaser Mike Hollingshead
A stormchaser has turned his hobby into a job, driving tens of thousands of miles every year to take spectacular photographs of extreme weather. Mike Hollingshead jumps in his car and races after storm warnings in the hope of capturing shots of tornadoes. He follows about 40 storms each year, clocking up around 20,000 miles
June 17, 2009. Mike says: "This photograph was taken at the end of the day after seeing three tornadoes from the storm. The supercell is moving towards the York Nebraska truck stop
Mr Hollingshead first started chasing storms in 1999. He quit his job at a corn milling plant in 2004 to dedicate himself to storm chasing. He now earns a living selling pictures and footage of storms. He lives in Blair, near Omaha, eastern Nebraska, which he describes as being in "Tornado Alley"
May 10, 2005, A Grand Island supercell. Mike said: "I watched it move slowly east and got this shot after sunset. It was actually pretty dark - the long exposure just makes it look lighter"
February/March, 2009, Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge, northwestern Missouri. Controlled burns and firenadoes or firewhirls. "This one was simply crazy. It was probably 1,000 feet tall, this big vortex, fanning up flames and throwing flaming debris out from it, with a field of snow geese in the foreground"
June 9, 2005, Hill City to Stockton Kansas, a tornadic supercell. Mike says: "This is one of my favourite storm shots. The cloud on the right is an inflow type of cloud - it marks the region between the rain-cooled downdraft air, which is right up against the rain core, and that of the warm, moist inflow air out ahead of the storm. As my dad pointed out to me, it is in the shape of an alligator head"
September 29, 2008: The North Omaha Tower is struck by lightning."Those bolts are going upward off the towers. It did this five times in about 15 minutes," Mike said
August 17, 2005: "The sun setting under a non-severe storm in southwest Nebraska, five hours west of home"
July 13th, 2009: Mike says: "This storm was at least a top five chase of mine. It was amazing to follow for hours. It started near Rapid City South Dakota at around 4pm and was still a supercell into the night past 10pm"
June 18, 2008, Badlands, South Dakota, around 4am. Mike says: "A weak storm complex was racing southeast from the blackhills. There was another weak outflow boundary pushing north off other storms to the south. It seemed maybe they collided there. I could not believe my eyes watching this wall go up like that as it moved towards me"
May 28, 2004, on Highway 12, Nebraska: a supercell spins across the countryside. Mike says: "This was an amazing storm which started about three hours drive west of home. I chased it from its birth until a bit after this shot. It was in amazing forms for hours. The rotating supercell took on a donut shape over this highway as it moved into Sioux City, Iowa, with tornado sirens wailing"
June 21, 2009: a storm with dramatic funnels and tornadoes in central Iowa
May 23, 2006: Mammatus and lightning at sunset
May 13, 2008: Mindenmines, Missouri. Mike says: "A close lightning bolt at the end of a chase six hours from home. This one was really, really close. It was perhaps the second most return strokes I've seen on a bolt"
June 10, 2006: "This chase started about a seven-hour drive west of home. This isn't a supercell, just a severe complex with high winds"
August 20, 2007, Primrose supercell with mammatus Said Mike: "This was mammatus clouds behind a line of storms about three hours west of home. This is at sunset so obviously well into the chase"
June 7, 2005. Mike says: "This was a spaceship-type of supercell structure nearing I90 in South Dakota"
July 15, 2008: More lightning at the North Omaha tower.
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