DESERT LIGHTNING - With Drone
- last year
THE NORTH AMERICAN MONSOON
We know the deserts of the American southwest and northwestern Mexico as beautiful, mysterious, and arid. But around June to mid-September, large-scale wind shifts can transport moist tropical air here. This is the North American Monsoon. Arizona and New Mexico receive up to half of their annual rainfall during the summer monsoon.
Afternoons often begin with storms developing over the mountains. These cells can be short-lived, existing only 30-40 minutes so the window to capture the lightning can be narrow and challenging.
THREE STAGES of THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT
In the cell’s developing stage, updrafts can be explosive. This is a great opportunity to capture the first bolts in clear air. In the mature stage, fantastic displays of lightning flicker alongside curtains of rain and in the dissipating stage the storm collapses on itself in a burst of water and wind. A dying storm’s surging outflow boundary will often help initiate another cell updraft and the cycle is born again. Some of these storms venture down into the valleys. A once arid land can make a magical transition to green.
We know the deserts of the American southwest and northwestern Mexico as beautiful, mysterious, and arid. But around June to mid-September, large-scale wind shifts can transport moist tropical air here. This is the North American Monsoon. Arizona and New Mexico receive up to half of their annual rainfall during the summer monsoon.
Afternoons often begin with storms developing over the mountains. These cells can be short-lived, existing only 30-40 minutes so the window to capture the lightning can be narrow and challenging.
THREE STAGES of THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT
In the cell’s developing stage, updrafts can be explosive. This is a great opportunity to capture the first bolts in clear air. In the mature stage, fantastic displays of lightning flicker alongside curtains of rain and in the dissipating stage the storm collapses on itself in a burst of water and wind. A dying storm’s surging outflow boundary will often help initiate another cell updraft and the cycle is born again. Some of these storms venture down into the valleys. A once arid land can make a magical transition to green.