WICKEDITY II - An Unforgettable 'Twins Chase' - 6/2019

VOLUME #2

AN EVENT OF OUR LIFETIMES'-COME-TRUE FOR MY WIFEY AND I 

The JUNE 8, 2019 storm sequence in western KANSAS was an evening and night to never forget! Yet another, but extraordinary, sequence of storms evolved in the west-central region near Russel Spring; a rather legendary region known for structures of amazing supercells like these.....

My wife Vera and I were front rowwwww, and SE-safe-and-viewing some jaw-dropping atmosphere....with barrages of unbelievable wicked CGs and colors too! And then later on , as what appeared in the darkness of the night, to be a wild but decaying tornadic supercell transitioning into a new developing updraft to it's east. There weren't many flashes during the tornadoes, but just enough lightning lit the scene for me to get a couple rough night images; AND a few of them with my wifey front n center too!

***Then as a bonus, following this sequence, yet another huge updraft developed to it's SE (barely east of us). Soon we were also watching them collide!*** ( I just kept clicking away on the Nikon...... )

THE FOLLOWING TRUE-STORY is a continuation from the   "PULL-OVER, I NEED THIS SHOT!'' moment in Volume #1 of WICKEDITY.....

STAGE - 8

IMMORTALIZING MILLISECONDS

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"YEAH, It  may have been on the ultra-adrenaline of the moment for that decision; but it was now or never! My wifey pulled us over in those Kansas Prairies as I anticipated our next positioning and settings. These were some of the wildest grandeur of atmospheric physics I'd seen with a Nikon DSLR. It's impossible to duplicate these fury in the Plains! Each are very unique and moments happen in milliseconds."   --JP--

WAIT TIL YOU SEE THIS NEXT COLLECTION ---->>>

My view just as we come to a stop.....

You can see the different lighting now by looking a bit further into it, vs along it. 2-3 mesos trying to get their acts together out on the horizon. 

The lightning barrage was about to get really wild, and dangerous!

And a danger-noodle tube or 2 as well ! 

WICKEDITY was about to become the next moments of my Lifetime! And my wife had never seen these types of storms before meeting me. 

OUR SKIES WERE LADEN, dark and menacing, frothing with energy, and about to light-up with extremely vivid and close-range lightning CGs. Not only that, but tornadogenesis was likely to continue; and more likely to get stronger!

Anticipation was thru the roof - and the adrenaline-o-meter went off-the-charts..... and that's what made situational awareness, even more of a demand at this point. 

It was about to get very dangerous, and possibly fast, too. But I have decades of obs to rely on, and a decade documenting some of the strongest storms on Earth.... in the southern Plains. I was confident, bold, hyper-analytical; while overlapped with observational displays of atmospheric sciences and physics. 

Numerous decisions were being made, faster than I typed this sentence!

While the tempest doesn't take lunch breaks, I gathered my wits enough to grab a few free-handed brief shots of a jaw-dropping stormscape on the horizon as the night was rolling in as well. Wicked lightning 'Stingers' I call them, started to do their flash dance! And I happened to KNOW a few Nikon settings for them!

After a few moments and clicks, I took a big chance and stepped out the car and set up my tripod, for better imagery. You can see it's pretty much wide-open farther than you can see and flat in all directions. Danger-factor escalating, as the updraft was strengthening......

INbounds were coming in from the south and from over my shoulder, in the east. Atmospheric friction was just about to hit frenzy-levels!

Dream come true Bucketlister moments

in the FRONT ROWWWW!!

Wanna see that one a little closer too?

I always thought this one looks like some kinda eagle bird.....

There's something about this iamge....

Do you 'see' a bird?

And then I clicked the next one; immortalizing that sunset moment  forever....

The next shot was nothing short of mesmerizing....

There's just something about this image that seems like timeless Kansas.....

Now we could start seeing some vorticies and some dirt flyin'.... 

If you look closer  you'll see the further meso with a tornado that briefly spun a few times. And then at this time of the pics, there's another one developing right there in front of me and Huney

THERE WERE 2 MESOS EVOLVING ON THE HORIZON THROUGH MANY STAGES....

The further one back there had a tornado within a multi-vort circulation spinning along, and 2 beavertail inbound bands showing..... But I had staged right in front of another huge meso developing for awhile now - it's only a couple 100 yrds out there!

As it continued swirling, my east-side position became front row for another funnel and 'steam' right there. My toes started curling thinking bolts were about to fly very close by....

It was like static in the air, as a prelude to the atmospheric rage that was brewing.....

Although I couldn't get enough clicks with the Nikon at this point, fast enough, I knew my time and my safety, were both running out......

So FIGHT for my insane imagery opp, or FLIGHT, for my safety??

I PRESSED MY LUCK!

CLICK......CLICK.........CLICK!!  

I wanted the next lightning CGs that were coming.... they were likely some lifetime opportunities and I had 'no choice' but to wait until last seconds for the best of it....

And I was so very glad, and fortunate, to have my wifey get to see this Kansas rage in-person!

Although many didn't believe it at the time, when I told them I did alot of this sequence free-handed with my Nikon, there came a couple shots that indefinitely proved it. lol

So here is the one I call 'Tilted Kansas'. 

There was so much electricity in the air that even as tenured as I am with lightning, I still knew better, so I stayed IN the vehicle, free-handed. I had 0 interest in being a grounding rod out there in the wide open KS.... 

Here's a bit of a zoom on the Tilted Kansas image to have a look at the things going on in there....

AND ANOTHER ONE....

It was this VERY tilted image here that finally got my attention back on my camera. Although the winds inbound were def coming thru, it was my fault for the tilt. 

But out in these environments, the stage is not ever set flawlessly, and winds are always difficult to deal with for detailed photography.

As I kept clicking away on my Nikon,

....my situational awareness had paused by the mesmerizing scene here that I had the successful chance to immortalize in Kansas; one of the most epic scenes of my lifetime!

On-the-spot camera setting adjustments as it evolved, and the challenge was excepted! I bet as you read my adventure here, you may yourself, have gotten a tad mesmerized too? lol 

WICKED STORMS!

THE VISUALS WERE ASTOUNDING....

I'm Thankful for this moment here - because it was here that I noticed the CG bolts were getting closer, and the storm was edging closer to me as well. It's also when I noticed how evolved that meso right nexto us here was now too!

I remember seeing the twin mesos on radar for a bit and trying not to miss anything.... as those precious seconds clicked away. And in Kansas, you're basically a rod in cow pasture, out there in tornado country! The clock was ticking..... 

It certainly won't be very long before we are IN the strike-zone for the lightning. And, I was surprised to not see a matured tornado twisting yet either...

SO...Let's take a moment and look at this next one, as I was CERTAINLY pushing my luck now!

BUT JUST LOOK AND SEE WHY!

Everything is getting closer even though the initial supercell and meso is way in the background still. It continuers to swirl around and even a soft beavertail inband showing as well. Occasionally you'd see some dust thrown around too.....

Another massive CG striking Kansas turf as a bonus here also, but the main point of focus should be shifting to what's RIGHT THERE in front of us developing now, alot closer to us there. You can even see a funnel started on it too. 

That meso right in front of us is getting big and stronger now, and it's swirling like a mud-potter's bowl....

While in the background the original meso was still rotating and fingers and finally, a vortex..... and right in  front of us was a retreating funnel too! 

A considerable TORNADO 'on-the-ground' moment!

The winds were inbound-rockin'! It was time for one of my most daring but full-throttle moments of my life next for this Lifetime shot....

I told my wife "It's time! I'll be right back!"

  I was about to find out I have lived more than one life! So much of the atmosphere was aligned with my Dreamshot and my perspective that I knew it was Time...

I've never used a lightning trigger and most of my imagery is short-exposure; but I wanted a longer exposure and we know the only way to do it acutely, with twinkling lights on the horizon too....  is with a tripod! YEP - a lightning rod of steel out there on the Kansas cow pasture Plains! I knew the sky was primed, and Ma Nature did not disappoint!

I knew my settings...

I knew my time was VERY short...

and I knew I was at MY prime!

I've long-known an old proverb that says something like 'Pressure can push a human to their pinnacle, or crumble, fast'.

The next image..... actually happened in real-time. This was pre-Ai 2019.

Everything that I was reading and predicting, was about to come true. And, it was getting VERY dangerous!

I jumped out and mounted in no time, the settings were on and simply aligned the horizon, and..... CLICK. 6 SECONDS of immortalizing milliseconds! In the waning BLUE HR, the brief tornado was throwing dirt, and the mesos lit-up with tremendous power of lightning show about 4 seconds in! 

1.....2.....3.....4.... CGs! And then a PAIR split right nexto me and the car on both sides! You'll see their tendrils on both upper sides of the image coming in from behind me, OVER MY HEAD!!

'EPIC'

....doesn't even come close! There are no words.....

The only way to 'describe' this, is to see it in real-time, in-person. But, YOU weren't there..... so I immortalized it, and saved it for you and me, Here.

And when you look to the right, you'll see some of the corn lit by the CG bolt that hit right behind me here in the split, as well....

Proof that I've lived more than one life now. So, I jumped back in the car and resumed my free-hand position again on the passenger side of the car again, for some kinda safety.... My wife, still holding strong as an ox in those conditions; as the thunder literally 'cracked' and sounded like shotguns!

It was rather dark nexto these updrafts, and the only reason the foreground is so lit, is from the 2 bolts split nexto me, very similarly to the ones in the background here. Look to the left side here and you'll see the glow, and how close I came to getting that bolt on camera. Look to the right and you'll see some of the corn lit by the CG bolt of the split that just missed me behind the car!!

AND THEN IT STOPPED AND GOT DARKER.....

Lingering on thru the Blue Hr now and suddenly.... the brief tornado lifted, and lightning stopped!

Most of the time when this happens it's a good thing. But not always. And in this case, we were the not-always case.....

It was regenerating, recharging, and getting ready to get mad as the system started shifting east.... and the LLJ might have a chance to kick in to wrap-up, making this twin-meso chase even more intense as darkness was setting in!

And my NIKON was hungry for It ALL!

I changed some of my settings real quick for a closer encounter, but in a darker environment with brighter illuminosity. 

BANG!!

I captured the Kraken! Immortalizing it, as I was predicting it!

There's just so much going on in this image too. In the background, you can still see some suction under the base as that prior tornado lifted. But, it's still ingesting warm moist air and shown by the continued beavertail inband cloud here. And at the same time, some of the energy is now shifting into building the dominant new meso right next to me - building it with more and more 'plates' in the stacked sculpture that's developing. 

You can even see a weak column of rotation as it sparks the new incredible CG  a few 100 yrds out now.....

And now for my next hat trick......

Twin mesos and CGs ground contacts and striking towers!

I figure at this point it's probably a good time to just stop....and look at what's going on in this image next, and describe to yourself what you see....

That's literally what I did as well in these moments. I stopped in awe to review this part of the evolution of these 2 mesos interacting in the Kansas sunset fury!

These were some of the most pinch-myself visual obs of the Kansas rage that I'd really gotten to capture forever. The test was on and I was at the plate! My wife and I were slowly settling into the Bear's Cage, as it was intensifying.... and the sunset hues blending it all together, was something to Live for....

RAW Mother Nature in the dance of the Plains!

Another 'Tilted Kansas' image. The inbound winds were rockin' as this thing kept rotating like a barber pole bowl now.

I tried my free-handed photography as best I could here, trying to use the car window frame as the anchor, but kept losing the horizon. But I think overall, 'you get the picture'....