August 6, 2013 Socorro Nighttime Electrical Storm

Our chase tour group began today in Douglas, AZ, right on the Mexican border.  The Arizona monsoon was forecast to shift eastward towards New Mexico for a while, so we had to get out of Arizona.  Also, SPC had outlined the OK Panhandle and vicinity with a slight risk for severe storms on the 7th and 8th.  I wanted to be in decent position at the end of today for the OK Panhandle prospects tomorrow.  Forecast charts indicated plenty of instability for much of the western half of NM today, so my plan was to head north towards I-40 and to find something pretty around sunset.  As we neared Deming, NM, around lunch time, very impressive and beefy storm towers were already blossoming above the mountains north and northeast of Silver City.  This was not something that made me happy.  Early convection usually means mediocre to lousy convection later on.

I elected to head over to I-25 via the Hatch cutoff, and we motored north through Socorro and Belen with a handful of scrawny cells around.  Models suggested some thunderstorm activity towards sunset north of Albuquerque, and out west towards Grants and Gallup.  We went west on I-40 from Albuquerque nearly all of the way to Grants.  We dropped south to a pretty sandstone cliff overlook, but the cells to our southwest and west were depressingly inert.  I booked rooms in Albuquerque, and on the way back east on I-40, we began to notice some flashes to the distant south.  Even though it was close to 10:30 p.m. already, our group was thirsty for more nighttime lightning photography opportunities.  I had Bob head south on I-25, and we prayed that the thunderstorm that was well to our south would remain active.

Occasional bright lightning flashes with the storm near Socorro drew us southward.  The cell was moving to the northeast, so we went southeast out of Belen about 10 or 12 miles and set up on a side road.  It was pitch dark, except for the lightning flashes in the storm that was about 15 to 20 miles to our south.  I initially tried to get some wide angle shots which included some lightning and the summer Milky Way sky above.  But cloudiness with the storm quickly intervened between us and the stars overhead.  (Image 7057 shows some weird light tracks amongst the stars — what is that all about?!)   I changed to the long lens (70 – 200mm) and went into CG lightning mode, and the cell did not disappoint!  The storm got a little closer and issued spectacular lightning bolts every 2o to 30 seconds or so.  All we had to do was to point the lens towards the most active area, open the shutter, and wait for the next one!  We spent close to an our out here in the middle of nowhere before packing it in, and got back to the Albuquerque motel around 1 a.m.