Striking Sunset

"Striking Sunset" by 2023 Weather Band Photo Contest Finalist Liz Kemp

I have been chasing storms during the Arizona monsoon season with my camera for the past ten years or so, and on August 11, 2022 I found myself southeast of Tucson with some promising indications of activity appearing on radar. I was tracking a cell that was moving slowly west from the city of Sierra Vista, but the scarcity of roads in the area made it difficult to get within a reasonable distance. As is usual during the season, I encountered several friends and acquaintances from the Tucson Storm Chasers Facebook group, but as sunset approached, I found myself alone on Highway 82 with no obvious plan of attack. Suddenly, I remembered a vantage point off a little-known road to the small town of Elgin that my best friend (Lauren G Bailey, also a 2023 finalist!) had shown me several years previously, and calculated it might intersect with a new cell developing to the south, near the Mexico border. 

Hoping that I could find the spot again, I turned off the highway and headed south. My memory did not fail me – a corner with wide open views to the west provided ample safe parking and space to set up my tripod. I use a lightning-sensing trigger to fire my camera when a strike is detected, and after a few moments I was delighted when it went off as the dark clouds rolled in, right in time for the sun to set. There were even a few yucca flowers springing up above the horizon to add depth to the scene.

I couldn’t believe my luck – or that I was the only storm chaser to capture this scene. Or was I…? Just a few minutes later, a white van and a couple of other cars pulled up next to me, and out poured a tour group led by my friends John Sirlin and Greg McCown! This just gave me added confidence that I was in the right spot, as those two always find the best places to capture lightning.

We all stood there in awe as the storm passed in front of us, heading northwest in front of the setting sun. Our vantage point offered plenty of room for several cameras and tripods each, and the cacophony of lightning triggers firing was incredible, as bolt after bolt landed in the grasslands of Sonoita. Later, as I was editing the photos, I discovered I had captured at least thirty distinct images of lightning from that one spot.

Recently, I revisited the spot to share it with another storm chasing friend. Outside of monsoon season,  the feeling is quite different with the noon sun blazing down out of a clear blue sky. However, the yucca flower stalks are already there, waiting for the monsoons and the next “crop” of storm chasers to stop by.