so many things to say but the first is if you haven’t done any storm chasing or learnt anything about storms and ever see something like any of these pictures, head the other way, this guy came very very close to dropping tornado. the funnel was there, the rotation was.. intense.. and by chance I was way too close to it to be safe. be smarter than me.
This was pure luck. the storm gods smiled on me in a way I hadn’t fully realized I needed till it was happening. There’s something almost holy about being right in the eye of all that violence and tumult. It’s sacred for a moment or two while everything churns and it’s like the whole of all our gadgets and cleverness never existed. it’s base and raw and sublime and also often utterly terrifying as you make safety calculations on 20 min old radars and past similar experiences but you can never know when things are going to suddenly go out of control, and the truth is the more you flirt with it, the more likely you’re going to get burnt one day. I get this logically but I feel almost manically driven to stay in that air when it’s happening. I can’t explain it with words but it’s as close to religious as I’m able to get.
I left with no plan, only knowing something was brewing west after a quick radar check and I barely made it out of town when I came across the first shot you see there. I’ve learnt those rough edged flat bottoms are gold but I’ve probably never been able to watch it go from that to what it went to before and I definitely had no time to look at radar between multiple cameras and a time-lapse (which I will figure out how to get on here at some point).
it was all over in about 45 mins and I was 2 mins from home. Some days are like that. some days you drive 1000k and spend the entire day in the car and see nothing exciting.
last bit to say is my health is dramatically improved. It took a literal cohort of doctors but we’ve landed on what’s going on and it’s being treated now, quite painfully, and slowly, but I’ve so (no words for how so) happy to report that I am able to get back out and make pictures again. to chase storms and sunsets and drive for long periods. that in itself is a miracle. a literal undeserved miracle.
While it’ll be some time before I can attempt any long distance adventures again for now at least the thing that makes my life make sense to me is back on the table. I don’t know how to explain how hard the last 6 months have been wondering if my future was going to be without pictures. Wondering who I am without making pictures.
