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Tonight started at about 1AM and led me down to Ashland and Gretna, NE. This was definitely one of the best nights I have ever seen with lightning and I was determined to get some shots in. I had passed up Friday night for tonight and am I glad I did.

Above is a gallery of the best shots I had of the night. Not too many CG’s around, but a lot of crawlers. I happened to find a couple of radio towers in the area which were catching some lightning. Not as much as one would hope for, but enough for some good shots overall.

After 1 failed attempt near Glenwood, IA around midnight, I headed to Ashland, NE at around 3AM. There was tons of lightning to be found but the fog was too dense.

To the left is the best image I could get. Very minimal light to the right and some purple hue to the left. Got a little bit of video that I will consider uploading later.

This was not by any means a storm chase! These are pics that I took from work while being held hostage by a Tornado Warning. Because of liabilities, etc. etc. etc. I got chewed out pretty good for standing out back taking video and pictures of this storm as it rolled through.

There was a ton of hail that came down, lots of rain, some strong winds. It was pretty exhilarating! The storm formed tornadoes in Cass County, NE injuring 8 people total when an outbuilding flew into a car injuring 5, and a tree fell onto a truck injuring 3 both occurring in Eagle, NE.

During this time that it was over Omaha, Joey (my co-worker) and I were out back shooting video and taking pictures when Linda (our supervisor) just about had a fit with us. Mom called from WalMart saying that they were being held hostage, as well, and that WalMart was not permitting anyone to leave the premise. Moments afterwords, when the wall cloud was visible, I called her back and she said that they were just leaving. I thought that was a bad move on WalMart’s part, but, eh.

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This was a reasonably quick chase, just some lightning shots for the first thunderstorm of the year. Sounds weird saying this, but I missed the ping of hail on my roof. It wasn’t a great storm, so the lightning shots weren’t that great. I sat on a bridge over I-29 looking to the South and Southwest (most of these were shot facing Southwest) while every great once in a while a car would drive past me. One jerk even decided to scare the living hell out of me and honk as he got right behind me. Not fun at 10:30 at night alone on a country road. But, I take my chances.

These photos have been played with a little as far as the coloring is concerned. I was bored and decided to mess around a bit. They’re not outstanding lightning pics so there’s really no harm done.

This is the infamous June 2008 wind storm. I don’t exactly know how much damage (money-wise) this storm caused, but it must have been in the millions. A tornado would have been a better option for the city of Omaha. Power was out around town for days, even at my apartment where we have underground electricity, power was out for 2 days.

Yeah, it was a bust, but very scenic. This is the first chase I have been on since, what, 2004? Wow, can’t believe it’s been that long since I saw that tornado in Waverly. I was listening to this AM station in Shenendoah (950 or something) and people kept calling in from Emerson saying that they saw the tornado, I say they were all b.s.ers. I never saw the damn thing. (Go figure, me, not see a tornado, no!) It wasn’t until I got home and saw on Channel 6 WOWT people who had NICE video of the touchdown. I saw, what I believe was a meso, definitely not a tornado. Possibly funnels, but can’t be too sure. This was the best shot of the, what I consider weak, wall cloud. But this storm started in Cass Co., NE and moved into Mills Co., IA in a 3 hour period. It was strollin’ along at a whopping 10 mph. You can imagine my surprise when I arrived in Glenwood, a 45 minute drive during rush hour traffic, and the storm was STILL THERE. No tornado, but it was still a very photogenic storm!!

These images were shot looking towards Waverly, Nebraska. Click here for images of the same storm later on by Mike Hollingshead. This was my first tornado ever. I have to give credit to Jeff Miller for actually teaching me how to catch this storm. Photos and video of the storm was featured on KM3 News on June 13, 2004.

This was my longest chase yet, from O’Neill to Grand Island. Got a speeding ticket on my way to O’Neill. These two photos were shot somewhere between O’Neill and Grand Island. Photo 1 is of some mammatus. Photo 2 is of a Truck and Trailer vs. the Wind. Guess who won. Aurora recorded record size hail. I arrived just before the hail hit so hadn’t been able to see any damage. I-80 fro GRI to OMA was just insane (pouring rain), so I wasn’t about to turn back.

Photographed in Northwest Omaha, Nebraska looking East. Obviously my best lightning chase so far. Simply had to go up the road to a church about 3 blocks away to do these shots. Shot on a Minolta DiMage 7i, most at 4″ shutter speeds.

These photos were taken just west of Crescent, Iowa at about 4:30 AM.