Storms of 2008

Overall, I was disapointed with the storms I was able to chase this year. Every storm seemed to be the shelfy-outflow dominate type, with no classic Supercell structure. One storm in the beginning of July, on the other hand, took on Supercell characteristics as it moved east off the foothills just south of Rocky Mountain House which eventually wrapped up tight near the Markerville area, and spun nicely for a brief period. Visually, it looked like it was going to at least drop a funnel, but precip for another storms forward flank killed any chance the storm had shortly thereafter. I'm obviously no meteorologist, but from looking at the models all summer, here in Central Alberta our shear was almost always directional, and we struggled to get any deep decent moisture that Saskatchewan and Manitoba always seem to receive! The storm of the year, in my opinion judging from photos, was in southeastern Saskatchewan on July 10th where the shear and deep moisture was present! Hopefully next summer will be better. Nonetheless, the storms I managed to photograph this year were photogenic, and I had alot of fun taking them. Unfortunately, I was unable to get any decent lightning photos, since the best opportunities came late at night when I was sleeping. Work sucks! Anyways, here are some storm photos with camera information and a brief description:

Canon Rebel XTi

Aperture: F-8

Shutter: 1/160

ISO:200

Focal Length: 18mm

This is the July 4th Supercell I mentioned above, where it tightened up nice and began to spin for brief time. Looking on the radar archive later on, a Carvel scan showed this storm with a hook around the same time this photo was taken. This is definetly the nicest updraft base I observed this summer.

Canon Rebel XTi
Aperture: F-8

Shutter: 1/15

ISO: 100

Focal Length: 18mm

The July 9th, 2008 Rimbey, Ab hailer! Sitting at home watching Carvel, this storm popped off the northwestern foothills and moved towards Rimbey. I got to the storm at the intersection of Hwy53 and Sec766 and noticed a huge hail core that I didnt want to be in! I stayed in front of it, and managed to get the tripod out to take this photo of it dumping hail near Rimbey. Photo taken just southeast of Rimbey.

Canon Rebel XTi
Aperture: F-10
Shutter: 1/13

ISO: 100

Focal Length: 18mm

Canon Rebel XTi

Aperture: F-10

Shutter: 1/6

ISO: 100

Focal Length: 18mm

July 13th, 2008. After chasing and abandoning an earlier storm that gusted out and became hugely outflow dominate, I found myself at the intersection of Sec587 and Sec791 looking at Carvel on the blackberry and seen new storm development in the foothills northwest of Sundre. I met this nice shelf on range road 10, south of Hwy27, east of the QE2 and purposely shot these with the canola field in the background to obtain great contrast. I let the storm pass over, and never found hail bigger than a nickel in this location.

Canon Rebel XTi

Aperture: F-5.6

Shutter: 1/30

ISO: 100

Focal Length: 18mm

July 26th, 2008.

This storm took on HP Supercell status after crossing the QE2 right at the Olds overpass, after being quite a shelfy, outflow dominate mess comming off the foothills. This is probably my favourite storm photo of 2008, the storm looks absolutely insane! Taken west of Sunnyslope, Ab on Sec582.

Canon Rebel XTi

Aperture: F-7.1

Shutter: 1/30

ISO:100

Focal Length: 18mm

August 9th, 2008. A very nice Shelf with laminar striations. I was up at my parents acreage in Poplar Ridge for a BBQ knowing a cold front was comming from the northwest, so I kept looking west, and finally seen this comming in. Hopped in the truck, went east on Hwy11A towards Red Deer, turned north on range road 281, set up the tripod adjacent to a canola field and managed to capture this shot.

Note: I'm not a big fan of post image editing since I believe in obtaining the best exposure possible out of the camera, but one cant deny the results you can get with minor editing! These photos have been in Adobe Lightroom, and honestly, not much was done to them. These are fairly close to what came out of the camera. Hope you like them.