High Plains Drifter

Northeast New Mexico/Southeast Colorado Snow Showers.

(rest of images at the bottom of this post)

May 1st, which was day eight of my storm chase/photography trip, was actually quite a fun and interesting day photographing scattered snow showers with ambient surface temperatures in the mid 40s to lower 50s.  Given the continued dry environment in the low levels… with dewpoints in the mid to upper 20s… these showers would allow temperatures to wet-bulb down into the mid to upper 30s.  The environment was characterized by very cold temperatures in the mid-levels for the second day in a row with 500mb temperatures of -22 to -24 C.  All it took was just a few hours of insolation after sunrise to get the initial cumuls to develop over the higher mesas across northeastern New Mexico.  Knowing this in advance with the models all showing convective precipitation developing by 18z in this environment, I decided to depart Clayton during the late morning hours for Capulin Volcano to do some sightseeing and photography, knowing very well that I would have some interesting sky to potentially photograph to go along with the landscape.  It ended up working out just as I had hoped.  I arrived at Capulin around 12:30pm or so, wandering around the rim of Capulin on the 1-mile loop rim trail photographing the varioius showers.  These showers were so small, it actually made for better photography, because I could fit the entire shower… and sometimes two… in one ultra-wide angle frame.  One of the stronger showers to the west developed a small anvil and even some mammatus.  Showers with contrasting white snow shafts against an otherwise fairly blue sky…and warm-colored ground…made for good images.  I left Capulin and headed north to Folsom then briefly northeast from there to get under a heavier shower that was along and just south of Hwy 456.  I started to hit the moderate wet snow about 3 or 4 miles east of the Hwy 551 junction.  It snowed just heavy enough to create a light white blanket on mainly elevated surfaces.  I found a small row of hay bales which made a great subject with a light coating of wet snow on top.  I then turned around and decided to head west along Hwy 72 across the Johnson Mesa to Raton.  I then went north to Trinidad and was hoping to stop by for a quick bite to eat and a beer at the Trinidad Brewing Company, however apparently this place is now closed.  Since the brewpub hunt was a bust, I continued my merry way back to the east on Hwy 160 stopping occasionally to photograph more of the showers.  One stronger cell developed just north of Kim early in the evening, and I even chased this for a brief time before it died.  All in all this was quite a fun day of shooting!

Begin:  Clayton, NM
End: Dodge City, KS (home)
Day Eight Mileage: 461 mi.
Trip Mileage: 3654 mi.

No storm day, drive to Clayton, NM photographing scattered showers with landscape of Western Oklahoma Panhandle.

(rest of images at the bottom of this post)

I slept in until noon and got a new tire put on my Jeep first thing.  Cumulus were developing from northeast to southeast, and after I got back home around 1:30pm, I quickly packed things up again, looked at a couple of analysis maps, including the short-fuse composite and 1km visible image, and decided to head east toward Pratt and get closer to the agitated cumulus.  Problem was that the convergence zone was shifting rapidly east to Wichita… and the original focused area of cumulus near Coldwater and Pratt waned with renewed cumulus developing well to the east in the Hutchinson to Newton areas.  I abandoned this jaunt about 30 minutes into the drive after realizing this would be a fool’s errand.

So I started looking at things and decided that I was going to do some hiking in the Caprock Canyons or Palo Duro Canyon the following day since it appeared the next chasing opportunity would be Sunday the 2nd.  I had to head back to Dodge and pick up my hiking shoes though, because in the rush to leave, I forgot to pack my hiking shoes.  I looked at the models one last time and thought that sightseeing/hiking and photographing some of the showers around Capulin Volcano the next day (Saturday 5/1) would be the most interesting thing to me… so that’s what I decided to do.  After I picked up my shoes I set off south toward the western Oklahoma Panhandle.  Showers had developed in the cold air aloft, around -22 to -24C at 500mb, which were producing some nice virga shafts when I reached the Oklahoma Panhandle.  My route took me to Guymon then west to Boise City.  One of the more interesting things photographed was a decaying shower that was elongated east to west in a peculiar wave structure, kind of like Kelvin-Helmholtz waves, but the wavelengths were quite long and didn’t “break” like K-H waves usually do.  It was interesting nonetheless, whatever nomenclature you wish to attach to it!  From Boise City I continued west to the New Mexico line northeast of Clayton and photographed fairly colorful virga/rain/show showers to the distant north from a location between Clayton and Kenton.  I tried to use some foreground subjects to my advantage to enhance the images, like usual.  I also used the circular polarizer for most of my images as well.  Overall, the sunset colors were sub-par given the sun going behind clouds as it was setting after 8:00pm (CDT).

Begin:  Dodge City, KS (home)
End: Clayton, NM
Day Seven Mileage: 346 mi.
Trip Mileage: 3193 mi.

Landscape photography in the Nebraska Sand Hills.

I left Dodge City around 7:30am with the idea of some landscape photography around the sand hills of Nebraska later on in the afternoon and evening.  After a brief visit to the North Platte NWS forecast office and lunch, I made my way to Thedford.  After checking into the motel and about a 20-minute catnap, I began my little tour of southern Cherry County.  While Cherry County is loathed by storm chasers given the vast expanse of nothingness and a dearth for roads, it is quite scenic.  Rolling hills and ancient dunes of grass covered sand make up this landscape.  It is a very expansive ranching country and there are several very scenic unpaved and one-lane paved county roads.  I decided on a route that took me north from Seneca then west through ranchland to state highway 97.  I then proceeded back to the southeast on Brownlee road then back southeast on Seneca road completing a nearly 65-mile loop.  There were several large ponds of water with an assortment of waterfowl and other birds present.  I was surprised to find a couple of swans in one of the ponds.  I am not sure if they were Trumpeter or Tundra swans though, since they are so similar in appearance.  Countless windmills and cattle, of course, given the ranching land use, which made for good elements in a number of my images.  Scattered cirrus clouds also completed the composition on a number of images versus just an ordinary bland blue sky.

I was also scouting out some potential moonrise locations to shoot from.  I wanted to get a good telephoto (~400mm focal length) image of the moon rising with sand hills and/or a lone windmill in the distance for perspective.  What was troublesome, however, was that on the eastern horizon, the cirrus was thicker, and I wasn’t sure if that was going to ruin my moonrise opportunity or not.  Moonrise was 8:12pm, and the moon was about 97% full, rising just a little bit before the sun setting.  Sunset colors in the sky were not to be had, since the sun was setting behind thick cirrus to the west as well.  I was fairly bummed about that, and given my pessimism, I just totally abandoned the idea of a decent moonrise, and just resumed my trek back south to Seneca and highway 2.  Well, lo and behold, looking off to the east-southeast at about 8:20 was the big moon off the horizon.  Crap!  I was fortunate to be in a good spot, though, and I quickly pulled off and set up the tripod to get a few images of the moon with the sand hills (vertical compositions).  I then went on my merry way about another mile or so when I spotted a distant windmill which was almost perfectly located with the moon about 25 minutes after moonrise.  This was the first time I’ve ever set the tripod up on top of my jeep, because I needed to get a little more elevated since the top of the windmill was only barely clearing the horizon line.  It was just enough of an increase in height, shooting from atop my jeep, to get this shot of the moon and the windmill.. another vertical composition.  All in all, I was rather pleased with this 4 and a half hour shoot across southern Cherry County!

Begin:  Dodge City, KS
End: Thedford, NE
Day Four Mileage: 481 mi.
Trip Mileage: 1770 mi.

21 images from this day’s shoot:

Palo Duro Canyon at night under near-full moonlight

There isn’t a whole lot to talk about concerning the second day of my chase/photography vacation.  I made a last minute decision to abandon the idea to stay south (Carlsbad Caverns and Guadalupe Pass for Day 2 and chasing Central/South Texas Day 3).  Trends in the models were less and less favorable for an isolated supercell in an area I feel comfortable chasing.  This ultimately turned out to be a good decision, because at the time I am typing this summary, storms developed south of Waco and by sunset were east of I-35 between Austin and Houston.

Instead, on Day 2 I decided to drive out toward the Palo Duro Canyon/Caprock Canyons area.  I was initially somewhat intrigued at the possibility of an isolated storm in a pathetic 500 J/kg CAPE environment, and I leisurely drove across the far southern Texas Panhandle watching cumulus struggle to develop into towering cumulus in the lower to mid 30s dewpoints…despite quite chilly temperatures aloft.  I reached Caprock Canyons state park, but it was about 6:00pm by that time.  I didn’t spend a whole lot of time here, though, as I was feeling pretty fatigued from the long drive from Roswell.  At around 7:00pm, watching the last of the cumulus dissipate, I decided to take the scenic Highway 207 drive north.  About 20 miles north of Silverton, I stopped for a little bit to photograph some of the flooded farm fields from a recent heavy rain event.  I was thinking initially of just driving straight to Dodge City.  I then changed my mind and decided that, since there was a near-full moon, I would do some late night photography of the Palo Duro Canyon… so I drove over to Amarillo for a late dinner and got a motel room for the night.  I slept from about 10:00pm to 1:00am and then set out to the Palo Duro Canyon via Wayside.  I spent about an hour and a half photographing some of the same farm fields with water as well as the Palo Duro Canyon at a picnic area and roadside pull off on the south side of the canyon along Highway 207.

Begin:  Roswell, NM
End: Amarillo, TX
Day Two Mileage: 389 mi.
Trip Mileage: 1007 mi.

14 images from this day’s shoot: