Today, we’ll be using these essential story elements to tell the story of the EF-5 tornado that struck Moore, Oklahoma on 20 May, 2013. Even though we’ll be using maps and photography to tell the story, you could easily use a video, blog post, podcast, and much more, too.

Plan As Many Story Elements as You Can

It’s hard to tell a story if you don’t know the basic elements. As a result, you should plan out as many elements of your story as possible. If you’re planning a photo and video shoot, these elements of your story don’t need to be set in stone – there’s a lot if improvising in making travel videos, for example, especially if you’re going to be shooting in a location you’ve never been to before.

But you should have at least a general idea of how you’ll portray your story to your readers. Without that planning, you’ll likely miss shots while you’re out filming, and negatively impact the quality of your final presentation. Simply do your research and plan out your story before you go out on a photo or video shoot. This technique works, even for difficult-to-plan genres, such as travel videos.

1. Set the Stage in the Setting

At the beginning of your story, you have a very limited time to set the stage for your story. With video, you you need to both set the stage and hook your viewer in the first 10-15 seconds.

For the Moore tornado, the stage will be set on the morning of 20 May. It’s the third, and most dangerous day of a three-day tornado outbreak across the southern plains. The previous day had seen violent tornadoes in Oklahoma, including an EF-4 inside the Oklahoma City metro that carved a path from Norman to Shawnee. We’ll use the Day 1 SPC outlooks and discussions to set the stage (note the usage of the strong, long-track tornadoes wording), as well as storm reports from the 19th. Furthermore, when you stepped outside that morning, it just had “that felling” that something significant was about to happen.

2. Determine the Point of View From Which Your Story is Told

From whose point of view will you be telling your story? Consider a murder mystery. The story will have a very different feel being told from the murderer’s point of view vs the detectives’ point of view.

For an event like the Moore tornado, you could choose to tell it through the point of view of the news media. While there is nothing wrong with this approach, there is a much better way to tell the story. And that’s through the eyes of someone who was there when it happened. As a result, I’ll be sharing my firsthand account of my experience that day.

3. Introduce Your Characters

Before you begin telling your story, you should at the very least know who the main characters are. For the Moore tornado (and some of my travel videos), I am the main character. On the other hand, if you’re telling the story of a place or event with historical significance, you’ll need to transport your audience back in time. The people who lived through those historical events will be your main characters. But to fully immerse your audience in your story, try making them the main character. Tell your story in second person, and let your audience experience it.

If you’re planning the story of something that can’t be scripted – like travel videos or blogs – it’s perfectly okay to not know every single character. When you’re traveling, you never know the interesting people with colorful personalities you’ll meet along the way. This could be a random stranger you’re sitting next to at lunch or on the train. Maybe it’s the proprietor of an incredible hole-in-the-wall coffee shop you stopped at along the way. Or perhaps, it’s the local guide that you hired for that bucket-list experience. Once you get done filming your adventure, just make sure you know how every character works into your story. And if they don’t play a meaningful role in moving your story along, leave them out.

4. Every Story Needs a Hook

The hook is one of the most important elements of your story, if not the most important. As you set the stage for your story, you also need to dangle a “hook” to your reader or viewer. That hook is designed to draw them into the story. It shouldn’t leave them just yearning to see what happens next. It should leave them craving it. Have you ever binge-watched a show all at once? The writers of bingeable shows are incredibly gifted at creating effective hooks. Those hooks are what keeps you pushing forward to the next episode instead of turning off the TV and going to do something else.

A good hook gives a sneak peak of what’s coming, but doesn’t give the storyline away. It could be a review of the conflict, the resolution, or anything else in the story. For the Moore tornado, we can state what the tornado hit – two elementary schools and a hospital. Notice that we didn’t say how much damage was done or if there were any injuries or causalities. We could also show the radar and the tornado emergency that was issued for the City of Moore as the tornado barreled towards it.

5. The Plot

The plot is the most important of all story elements, by far. In fact, I could write an entire post (and I probably will) on how to structure your plot to keep your readers engaged and wanting to know what will happen next. Plots are broken into 5 elements, and we can use a Freytag’s Pyramid to illustrate those 5 stages.

Plot Elements for Your Story

1. Exposition. Set the stage for your story. Introduce your characters, give your audience the hook to draw them in, and begin to introduce the primary conflict.
2. Rising Action. In this stage, your protagonist addresses the primary conflict with a form of action. As you approach the climax, those actions should build and escalate tension, like approaching the top of a roller coaster.
3. Climax. This is the pivotal moment your audience has been waiting for. Your protagonist will encounter their greatest challenge of the entire journey. It’s the culmination of the buildup of tension during the rising action phase. Make it exciting for your audience!
4. Falling Action. Your protagonist will deal with the consequences and fallout – both good and bad – of everything that happened during the climax. Keep your audience engaged by setting the stage for the story’s conclusion. By the end of this phase, you’ll be well on your way to a (hopefully satisfying) conclusion. Additionally, you should start resolving any conflicts that arose as a result of the climax.
5. Resolution or Dénouement. You can go one of two ways here. If this is actually the end of your story, wrap everything up. Tie up loose ends. Give your audience a sense of closure so they know the fate of your protagonist. On the other hand, if you’re writing a series or sequel, you should introduce another hook to leave your audience craving the next episode. Cliffhangers work exceptionally well as that hook.

Now, let’s look at how we can apply Freytag’s Pyramid to the plot of the story of the Moore tornado.

The Plot Elements of the Moore Tornado

6. Without a Conflict, There is No Story

Your story’s conflict answers the question of why your character is embarking on this journey. Without a conflict, you don’t have a story. It’s as simple as that. In your story, the conflict is what causes your character to take action and move the story forward. Conflicts can be both physical and mental. For example, if you’re telling a story about climbing Mt. Everest, the physical or external conflict consists of all the dangers your character encounters on their way to the summit. From frigid temperatures to thin air to dangerous terrain to altitude sickness, one false move could kill your character as they ascend the mountain.

On the other hand, let’s look at a mental conflict. Mental conflicts are internal journeys, and often tend to focus on a single main character. The best example of a simple mental conflict is a character’s journey to overcome their fear of heights so they can go skydiving or bungee jumping. You could also tell the story of how your protagonist overcame their stutter to become a great public speaker.

Keep in mind that while there is usually only one primary conflict, most stories have multiple conflicts. Additional conflicts tend to come in two forms. First, they can be sub-conflicts, that when put together, make up the primary conflict. If you’ve ever seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail, King Arthur’s quest to find the grail is comprised of numerous smaller conflicts they encounter along the way. The conflicts escalate as they get closer to the grail, culminating with the Bridge of Death and the Killer Bunny.

Cascading Conflicts in the Aftermath of the Moore Tornado

Conflicts in the story of the Moore Tornado fall into the second category of multiple conflicts. In these stories, the primary conflict sets off a series of additional conflicts during the falling action. In Moore, the primary conflict is the tornado itself. But after the tornado levels the city, a whole new slate of smaller conflicts emerges.

• With the city’s critical infrastructure destroyed, how do search and rescue teams coordinate and communicate their efforts?
• Debris is everywhere, rendering roads impassable. How do search and rescue teams get into these areas and rescue survivors without using the roads?
• The damage path is 17 miles long and 1 mile wide. Where do search and rescue teams, as well as city and state resources, prioritize their efforts?
• What do survivors do and where do we send them once they’re rescued? How do we get relief to storm victims as soon as possible?

There are obviously many more conflicts than just this following a major tornado, but this should get you started.

Even the Simplest Stories Have Conflicts

When you tell your story, remember that you can find conflict in even the simplest, most monotonous things. Take going to the grocery store as an example. I can think of one major conflict we’ve encountered going to the grocery store recently: the COVID-19 pandemic.

But even without a global pandemic, you can still find conflict to tell the story of your trip to the grocery store. Maybe you’re looking for a very special ingredient and have to go to 3 or 4 stores before you find it. Perhaps your character has fallen on hard times and needs to stretch a tight budget as far as possible. Or what if there’s a major winter storm coming and you have to fight through treacherous conditions and low supply to stock up ahead of the storm.

Conflicts can be really anything you think of, but you need to know your audience. If you create a story that your audience isn’t interested in, they’re not going to listen to you tell it. If you’re stuck looking for a conflict, ask yourself why your character is going on this journey. The answer to that question is the conflict in your story.

7. The Resolution

At the end of your story, you should tie up all loose ends and give your audience a sense of closure for how your story ended. Regardless of whether your story has a happy or sad ending, your audience should know what the characters’ lives will look like now that their struggles are over and the conflict has been resolved.

However, if you’re planning on writing a sequel or another episode, you can easily leave the door open to another chapter of the story. While one conflict is resolved, your character may facing another one. In that case, dangle another hook or cliffhanger to leave your audience eagerly waiting to come back for the next chapter. Then you can go back to the beginning of this guide and start the journey all over again.

The Moore Tornado Story in Maps and Pictures

Conclusion

Regardless of what media you are using to tell your story, you’ll be using the same seven elements to tell it. Planning is critical to being able to tell an insightful and engaging story, especially if you have to go out and shoot photos or video of it. Without a plan, your story will wander and ramble, and your audience will lose interest. Set the stage, hook them in, and leave them craving to see what happens next. Because at the end of the day, you shouldn’t want to just tell your story. You should want your audience to experience it.

Top Photo: The Reward at the End of a Tough Hike
Sedona, Arizona – August, 2016

The post The 7 Essential Elements You Need to Tell Your Story appeared first on Matthew Gove Blog.

So what’s my secret? I apply my education and experience in meteorology and storm chasing to make weather a focal point of my landscape photography and travel videos. Being proactive instead of reactive allows me to stay in front of changing weather. As a result, I am already in position ready to shoot whenever my target weather arrives. It doesn’t matter if I’m waiting for a sunset, a blizzard, or a thunderstorm. The strategy is the same. And today, I want to teach you that strategy so you can use weather to improve your landscape photography and travel videos.

A Word About Safety While Filming Weather

Whenever you go out in the field when hazardous weather is expected, safety should always be your number one concern. You can easily get yourself hurt or killed if you bite off more than you can chew. For example, don’t try to shoot lightning in the middle of an open field. If you don’t feel comfortable doing something, then don’t do it. It’s not worth hurting or killing yourself just to get “the shot”.

The High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) Model

The U.S. Federal Government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) developed the HRRR model (pronounced “her”). As a result, its spatial domain is limited to the United States. Because of its extremely fine resolution, it is highly accurate, having never let me down once during my tenure chasing storms. My own intuition ignored the model a few times, and let’s just say those always ended in busts.

The HRRR has several key features.

• Initialized from the Rapid Refresh (RAP) model, which gets its data from the global GFS (American) model.
• 3 km resolution is fine enough to resolve most individual thunderstorms, making it an invaluable tool for storm chasing
• Runs once per hour, on the top of the hour
• Forecasts 48 hours into the future, a significant increase over its 12-hour forecasts when I started storm chasing

While you can easily get HRRR predictions from most modeling sites, I prefer to get it straight from NOAA. When you load the NOAA site, you’ll see an interface that looks like this. To zoom in on a particular geographic area, select a region from the “Domain” dropdown. The timestamps contain the day of the week and the hour of the day, in UTC. Each row is a different model parameter. Click on a cell for the parameter and forecast hour you want to see, or click on the check in the “Loop” column to see a loop of all times.

Basic HRRR Parameters

Before I begin a model analysis, I like to look at the basic weather parameters, both on a national and regional scale. Here are the HRRR parameters that correspond to the basic weather data. We’ll define them shortly once we dive into some examples.

We’ll dive into additional parameters that are specific to certain types of weather phenomena, photography, and videography later in this tutorial, but these are more than enough to get you going.

HRRR Time Zones

All HRRR parameters and runs are initialized and output using Universal Coordinated Time (UTC), or Greenwich Mean Time. UTC always uses the 24-hour clock, so you don’t need to worry about AM or PM. The model often uses Zulu notation to indicate times. For example, if the model date says “14 Dec 2021 – 17Z”, that means that the model was run on 14 December, 2021 at 17:00 UTC. In the model output, “Wed 08” indicates the model’s prediction for Wednesday at 08:00 UTC.

Basic Storm Chasing Strategy for Weather Photography

You can ask three different storm chasers for their strategy, and you’ll probably get three very different answers. However, I prefer to keep my strategy as simple as possible. Not only because I’m a big believer in the moniker “Keep It Simple, Stupid”, but also because it makes it much easier to share my knowledge with you. Even though I designed this strategy for storm chasing, you can apply it to every type of landscape photography or travel video.

Step 1: 1 to 2 Days Before the Chase

Look at the Storm Prediction Center‘s (SPC) Day 2 and 3 Severe Weather Outlooks. Next, read the forecasts and discussions from your local National Weather Service Office. Finally, have a look at the weather models, looking for where the parameters best come together. At the very least, look at the GFS (American) and ECMWF (European) models. You may not quite be into the HRRR’s time range yet. However, if you are, please use the HRRR, too.

Your goal is to identify broad potential target areas. For example, you could identify Western Oklahoma, Central Kansas, and the Texas Panhandle as potential targets. While the outlook above doesn’t give the whole picture, targeting Northwestern Oklahoma and South-Central Kansas seems like a pretty safe bet. Don’t worry about specific locations within that target area yet. You’ll figure that out once the event gets a little closer and the models get a better idea of what’s going to happen.

Step 2: The Evening Before the Chase

Using the same resources you used in Step 1 to choose your preferred target area. If you can identify a backup target area in case your primary target doesn’t work out, great, but it’s certainly not necessary. At this point, you can start looking at specific areas inside your broader target area. You just want to identify them, since you won’t choose one until tomorrow.

Step 3: The Morning of the Chase

Have a final look at the models, SPC Outlooks, and local forecasts before you hit the road. Confirm or adjust your chosen target area as needed. After that, choose a specific area to start within that broader target area.

Additionally, you should identify a jumping off point before departing for the chase. The jumping off point should be close enough to where storms are expected to fire, but far enough in front of them so you’re not trying to outrun them just to get ahead. I often used small towns, truck stops, and scenic lookouts as jumping off points. Look for places where two major roads intersect. You want to quickly and easily be able to go north, south, east, or west once storms fire.

Step 4: Drive to Your Target Area

Once you’re on the road, you should be checking the HRRR every hour or two. That way, as you drive to your jumping off point, you can easily adjust it as necessary. Try to arrive at least 30 minutes before storms are expected to initiate so you can get your gear set up. If you pick your jumping off point correctly, you’ll be in perfect position when storms do fire.

Step 5: Wait for Storms to Fire

Once storms initiate, use doppler radar to identify the specific storm you want to chase. Your target storm should align with your goals for the chase. For example, you could pick very different storms depending on whether you were doing weather or landscape photography versus trying to deploy sensors into the storm. Then, the chase is on.

My Greatest Storm Chasing Success: The 19 May, 2012 Harper, Kansas Tornadoes

My greatest storm chasing success came when a hunch, model intuition, and a little luck all came together just perfectly. I could write an entire post telling this story, so I’ll give you the abridged version here.

For several days leading up to 19 May, 2012, it became clear that there was a very good chance for tornadoes near a triple point that was setting up in south-central Nebraska. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of a triple point, it’s the point where a warm front, cold front, and dryline meet. Model runs the morning of the chase confirmed that Nebraska was the most likely spot for tornadoes.

I wasn’t all that keen on driving from Oklahoma all the way to Nebraska, so I instead decided to look for something closer to home. That’s when I turned to the HRRR. It showed a window of very favorable conditions for tornadoes opening along the Kansas-Oklahoma border just before sunset. It was a very brief window – only about 20 minutes or so – but it looked even better than Nebraska. Timing would be critical.

Not wanting to rely on just a single model, I looked at several other models. They all showed the same window for tornadoes opening up along the Kansas-Oklahoma border. I had to give it a shot. Before I knew it, I was on the road, heading north up Interstate 35.

Everything Comes Together Perfectly for Awe-Inspiring Weather and Landscape Photography

I got up to the Kansas-Oklahoma border about 2 hours before sunset. My first stop was right off I-35 in Blackwell, Oklahoma to set up my jumping off point. A quick look at the HRRR showed everything was still in place for tornadoes at sunset just north of the state line. I decided to head west and make Medford, Oklahoma my jumping off point, which gave me easy access to a northbound road (US-81) into Kansas.

Before long, clouds started to bubble up on the dryline out to the west. Satellite and radar confirmed the HRRR’s predictions that the storms were going to be north of the state line, so I decided to move my jumping off point up to Caldwell, Kansas. By the time I got to Caldwell, the storms had fired and were heading towards the town of Harper, Kansas. I continued north and the chase was on. By the time I got to US-160, the weather radio was already blaring with Tornado Warnings. All I had to do was head west.

Just east of Harper, I pulled off onto a side street and had the whole show to myself. There was not another vehicle around, let alone any chaser traffic. That cluster of supercells produced over a dozen tornadoes in about 20 minutes, capped off by a breathtaking EF-3 tornado packing winds over 160 mph. The setting sun behind it was just icing on the cake.

Then, just like that, our very brief window for tornadoes slammed shut. The tornado became rain-wrapped before lifting as the sun set and darkness set in.

The Sweetest Victory Lies in the Photography

As I made my way back to I-35 to head home, lots of storm chasers started passing me going the other direction. After being so void of vehicles the entire chase, I couldn’t believe how many storm chasers were now heading towards Harper. But I knew they were too late. The tornadoes were done. The window was closed.

Interestingly, I didn’t realize the sweetest part of my victory until the next morning when I turned on the local news. Remember that triple point up in Nebraska? It had completely busted. Have a look at the storm reports. The red dots are confirmed tornadoes.

As a result, all of the chaser traffic I encountered on my way home were everyone who had been up in Nebraska racing down trying (unsuccessfully) to catch the storms in Kansas. I was one of only a small handful of people who had gotten footage of tornadoes that day.

Severe Weather in Landscape Photography and Travel Videos

As you can probably guess, the most practical application of our storm chasing strategy is for severe weather photography. Here are some severe weather parameters you should consider for your photo or video shoot. I’ve defined them in layman’s terms to help you understand them. You need to look where all of these come together with the target values. Just one parameter being off can completely shut off all storm activity.

Sunrises and Sunsets in Landscape Photography and Travel Videos

The Golden Hour is one of the most sought after period for landscape photographers and travel videographers. The low, warm light seems to make the landscape glow and the shadows dance. It’s a truly magical time of day. In fact, weather is what transforms you sunset landscape photography from okay to jaw dropping. Fortunately, the HRRR makes it pretty easy to identify the best location to film a sunrise or sunset.

Before we dive into the HRRR parameters, let’s recall what makes a good sunset. Brilliant sunset colors come from light refraction through clouds, dust, and other particles, so we need to examine cloud cover and thickness closely. Too many or too few clouds will result in a lousy sunset.

Unfortunately, the HRRR does not output cloud thickness as a parameter. However, it does output all of the parameters we need to calculate it. To get cloud thickness, simply use one of the following equations. The terms of each equation are defined below.

cloud thickness = cloud top height - ceiling
cloud thickness = cloud top height - LCL

Do note that if you’re using the second equation, cloud top heights are output in feet, while the LCL is output in meters! For best sunset colors, you want 25 to 45% coverage of thin, mid-to-high-level cirrus or cumulus clouds.

A Word About the Cloud Ceiling

The cloud ceiling is primarily used in aviation to indicate the height of the bottom of obstructing clouds. That means that if there is a cloud ceiling present, clouds will likely be thick enough to obscure the sunset, regardless of whether you find them in the low, mid, or high levels.

Additionally, don’t forget that rain showers can also make for spectacular sunsets. However, you should only try to integrate rain showers into your landscape photography in the summer. Small, pop-up summer showers can refract the light in spectacular ways. Winter showers are most often too thick and widespread to refract any light, which will ruin your sunset. Use the 1 km agl reflectivity parameter to evaluate rain shower potential.

Finally, know what compass bearing the sun sets or rises at. That bearing varies by both location and by time of year.

Winter Weather in Landscape Photography and Travel Videos

I break winter weather photography into two categories: inside the storm and post-storm. Both have their pros and cons. On one hand, you can capture the drama and intensity of blowing snow and bitter cold temperatures from inside the storm. On the other hand, a post-winter storm period can often be a spectacular 24-hour long Golden Hour to add breathtaking weather scenes to your landscape photography or travel videos. A fresh blanket of snow on a dramatic landscape makes for absolutely stunning photos and videos. For a textbook example, just have a look the Grand Canyon under a fresh blanket of snow.

Thankfully, both types of winter weather photography use the exact same strategy and parameters with the HRRR. The only difference is the timing.

For in-storm filming, you may want to also consider both wind speed and visibility. Alternatively, if you’re heading out after the storm, you’ll generally want at least 5 miles (8 km) of visibility, with at least a little sunlight poking through the clouds.

Finally, a word of caution. Be very careful around winter weather. Roads can close and travel can become impossible with little to no warning. If you don’t feel comfortable doing something, don’t do it. Trust me, you do not want to be stranded in your car in the middle of a major winter storm. If you have four wheel drive and/or tire chains, use them.

Lightning in Landscape Photography and Travel Videos

Lightning photography is one of the most challenging types of weather photography, but also one of the most rewarding. If just 5% of your lightning photos come out, you’re doing extraordinarily well. Thankfully, lightning happens everywhere, so you shouldn’t have to travel great distances to film it. In fact, you don’t need severe weather to get good lightning.

Before setting off to photography lightning, you must ensure your own safety. Lightning is one of the top weather killers not just in the United States, but around the world. Always shoot lightning from inside a building or car, or at the vary least, a grounded overhang. Do not under any circumstance stand under trees to try to film lightning. Trees often explode when struck by lightning, which will shower you in splinters, jagged wood, and molten sap.

Lightning Strategy

The strategy for lightning photography is staggeringly simple: set up in a dark spot at night, open the shutter, and let the picture take itself. If you’re shooting video, you can film lightning in the daytime, but even then, I still find your best shots come at night. Set up a ways from the storm to shoot lightning. That way, you’ll stay out of the rain. You’ll need a bit of luck, but when you do succeed, the results are, quite literally, electric.

While it’s impossible to predict exactly when and where lightning will strike, the HRRR will give you enough information to have a really good shot at it. Try to set up in a location where you don’t put yourself directly in the storm’s path.

Rainbows in Landscape Photography and Travel Videos

Most rainbow photos occur when you happen to look up and see a rainbow. But believe it or not, rainbow chasing is actually a thing. And unlike tornadoes, lightning, and blizzards, rainbows are one phenomenon you don’t have to worry about killing you while you’re out doing weather or landscape photography.

In order to see a rainbow, you need to put yourself between the sun and the rain, with the sun behind you and the rain in front of you. In order to see a rainbow in the afternoon or evening, you want to be looking east at the rain. On the other hand, you want to look west to see rainbows in the morning.

Additionally, sun angles play a critical role in finding rainbows. Unless you’re standing on top of a mountain or skyscraper, it’s much easier to put yourself between the sun and the rain when sun angles are low. As a result, you are much more likely to encounter rainbows during the Golden Hour period near sunrise and sunset than you are at high noon.

You can easily track cloud cover and precipitation with the HRRR. However, keep in mind that rainbows are far from guaranteed under any circumstance. No model is accurate enough to predict exactly where a rainbow will occur.

Weather in Seascape Photography

Seascapes are a stunningly effective way to integrate weather into your landscape photography and travel videos. Similar to winter weather photography, you have two options when it comes to the seascape side of landscape photography. With a few very unique exceptions, they require being in vastly different locations. If you’re looking to double-dip and get both types in one shoot, you’re likely going to be disappointed.

Cold Weather Seascape Photography

Largely grey and void of color, when taken correctly, viewers can almost feel the cold from a maritime layer that’s often thick and penetrating when they look at the photo or video. Locations such as downeast Maine, northern Europe, the Pacific Northwest, and the Canadian Maritimes come to mind when you think of cold weather seascapes. You’ll need to look at a few HRRR parameters

Tropical Seascape Photography

White sand. Warm breezes. Salty air. Lit up with brilliant and vibrant greens, blues, and turquoises, tropical seascapes will whisk you off to paradise. They’re warm, inviting, and relaxing, putting you in that vacation mode whenever you look at them, seemingly an escape from your reality. That’s probably why you have them as your computer desktop and have them hanging throughout your office. You can almost taste the fruity cocktails before you snap back into reality.

Interestingly, tropical seascapes are one of the only types of outdoor photography or videography that are more striking in the middle of the day than during the Golden Hour. Applying color theory explains a lot. Warm low light doesn’t draw out greens and blues. In fact, it does the opposite.

Finally, don’t forget about the optics and the physics of your tropical seascape. Those brilliant colors come from the sunlight refracting in the water. In order to maximize the brilliance of those colors, the sun must be as high in the sky as possible. Thick cloud cover blocks much of the sunlight, significantly limiting the amount of light that can refract in the water. As a result, colors will appear dull, dim, and muted.

Temperatures for Seascape Photography

You may have noticed that temperature is missing from the HRRR parameters for seascape photography and videos. Why is that? It’s because you don’t actually need cold temperatures for grey seascapes or warm temperatures for tropical beach photos. Don’t believe me? Have a look at these pictures I took at Lake Tahoe during the month of February. Temperatures that day topped out at 41°F (5°C), with plenty of fresh snow in the mountains.

Mist or Fog in Forest Landscape Photography and Travel Videos

I love forests shrouded in mist. They instill a sense of mystery and adventure, often whisking you away to another world. There’s a reason they are the setting of so many adventure movies. And I just love the striking contrast of the sun shining through the mist like a spotlight.

Best of all, you can find misty forests year round. One of my favorite locations to capture misty scenes is at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which sits on the border between North Carolina and Tennessee. The sequoia and redwood forests in California are another top destination for misty forest photography and videography. Make sure you pick a destination that still has plenty of green in the forest. Early mornings in the spring and fall work best for mist, but you can get some stunning winter pictures in a forest of evergreens.

Before we dive into HRRR parameters, let’s have a look at what conditions make for the best mist photography. First and foremost, you need to have 100% relative humidity. Mist will not condense out of the air if the humidity is below 100%. Second, there should not be any wind. Wind causes mist and fog to mix out and burn off.

Go Up in Elevation to Lengthen Your Window for Mist

Once you start photographing fog and mist, you’ll be amazed at how quickly it comes and goes. This is especially true early in the day, as heat from the morning sun drops the relative humidity, rapidly burning off any mist or fog. However, there is one more secret weapon in our back pocket to maximize the length of your window for shooting mist: the much overlooked z-axis, or, to put in layman’s terms, controlling your elevation.

As you go up in elevation, the temperature cools. Because cooler air can’t hold as much moisture as warmer air, more moisture will condense out at higher elevations. As a result, fog and mist will hang around longer because it requires more energy to burn them off. But, like everything, it comes with a catch. If too much water condenses out, the mist and fog will be too thick to let the sunlight shine through. Those photos and videos can still be stunning, but you won’t get those really striking pictures of the sun shining through the mist. If you ever find yourself in this situation, go back down to lower elevations to thin out the fog and mist.

Live in the Desert? You’re Not Completely Out of Luck

And if you live in an arid climate, don’t worry, you can still get in on the action. Sunlight filtering through dust, pollution, or wildfire smoke can give you the same effect. Even in a desert climate like Arizona, you can still get spectacular mist scenery in the winter, when cooler temperatures are much more conducive to condensing out what little water there is in the atmosphere. Dawn after an overnight rain will present you with your best photo and video opportunities for mist and fog.

Get Started Boosting Your Efficiency Adding Weather to Your Landscape Photography and Travel Videos

NOAA’s High Resolution Rapid Refresh model is an incredibly powerful tool whose applications stretch far beyond storm chasing. When used with storm chasing strategy, you can take the guess work out of adding weather to your landscape photography and travel videos. Give yourself more control over your photo and video shoots and work much more efficiently. And at the end of the day, you’ll ultimately be able to boost your revenues. What are you waiting for?

Want more photography and video tips and tutorials? Sign up for our email list today and you’ll also get exclusive personalized deals to our store, early access to all of our travel guides and tutorials, and much more. We’ll deliver them directly to your inbox, twice a month, all for free.

Top Photo: A large dust storm swallows up a mountain range as it crosses from Mexico into the United States
Why, Arizona – July, 2018

The post The HRRR Weather Model: How To Add Dramatic Skies To Your Landscape Photography appeared first on Matthew Gove Blog.

Right on cue, a line of massive rotating supercell thunderstorms explodes on the dryline in the late afternoon. You don’t have to wait long before Tornado Warnings start blaring on the weather radio. Now, you have some decisions to make.

• What storm in the line do you target? The strategy for choosing a target storm for photography or video can be very different from deploying sensors in its path.
• How close to the storm can you get and still stay safe? Consider both storm intensity and speed at the very minimum.
• Are there any storms nearby that could cut off possible escape routes? On a high risk day, there likely will be.

Those are just a few of the decisions you’ll need to constantly be making while you’re actively chasing a storm. Because things happen so fast, you have to constantly evaluate and adjust as needed. But where do you get this info?

Enter Weather Apps

If you’re like me, you lack the budget for the state-of-the-art technology the professional photographers and videographers use for not just storm chasing, but any outdoor adventure. Unfortunately, most weather apps (especially the free ones) don’t give you the information you need to properly plan an outdoor photo or video shoot. But that doesn’t mean you’re out of luck.

While there is no one “silver bullet” app that will give you all the information you need, I will be giving you the storm chaser’s toolbox of weather apps to plan your next outdoor photo shoot. You’ll be amazed at how well these weather apps work for landscape photography and travel videos. And best of all, they’re affordable. There’s no need to shell out hundreds or thousands of dollars on high end software anymore.

I also want to point out that I am not affiliated with or paid by these applications in any way. This is just a collection of my favorite weather apps that I use on most of my landscape and outdoor photography and video shoots.

Weather Apps for Landscape Photography and Travel Videos

Weather is a key component of not just landscape photography, but also travel, adventure, and outdoor videography. It can make or break your shot. In fact, weather is often the difference between that awe-inspiring shot that will sell your photo or video and a visual media file that gets deleted before you even get a chance to post-process it.

No matter what type of weather you need for your shot, these apps will give you the information you need to ensure that you get the shot you want. They cover blue skies to blizzards, tornadoes to sunsets, and everything in between. Once you assemble this toolbox of weather apps for your landscape photography or travel video shoot, you will no longer need to waste time just “taking a chance” on a good sunset or an approaching storm. Instead, you’ll already be in position ready to start filming before your target weather phenomenon even arrives.

RadarScope: The Cadillac of Weather Apps

Platform: iOS, Android, macOS, Windows
$9.99 (mobile), $29.99 (desktop)

Originally developed in the weather mecca of Norman, Oklahoma, RadarScope was built with one goal in mind: to keep you safe during severe weather. It was my number one go-to app during the height of my storm chasing days nearly 10 years ago, and it remains the go-to app for storm chasers and weather enthusiasts today. Its user base now reaches much further than just the storm chasing community. And it includes both landscape photographers and travel and outdoor videographers.

RadarScope displays highly detailed doppler radar data on an easy-to-read map. Even better, they have managed to ver successfully pull off what I consider to be the Holy Grail of GIS. When you look at the screen, the map seemingly fades into the background, drawing your eye to the radar data. Yet at the same time, you can instantly tell where the severe weather is with just a quick glance. In the world of GIS, that’s an incredibly difficult thing to do, and they have pulled it off absolutely flawlessly.

In addition to viewable radar data, RadarScope comes with a plethora of features and functionalities.

Key Features of RadarScope

• GPS Support. Plot your location on the map with radar data
• Severe weather warnings displayed on the map. Tap on the warning to read the text of the warning.
• In addition to reflectivity data, it supports all types of doppler radar data, such as wind speeds, echo tops, estimated precipitation totals, and dual-pol technologies.
• Includes a distance measuring tool so you can easily see how far you are from severe weather threats or measure how high the radar beam is at any given location
• Drawing tool lets you mark up and share the radar image
• Quickly export maps and data as either animated GIFs or as still images
• Supports both metric and imperial units
• Currently supports radar in all US States and Territories, as well as Canada, Australia, several European Union nations, Japan, and South Korea.
• Pro version has even more features, such as lightning strikes, split screen comparisons, watches and mesoscale discussions, storm reports, and much more.

Nothing has proven more valuable for my storm chasing, photography, and adventures than RadarScope’s GPS feature. Being able to plot your location on the map is critical to ensure that you are in the best position to capture the shots you need for your project. Even for benign weather features such as sunsets, things happen incredibly fast once you get out in the field. You don’t want to miss your shot trying to figure out where on the map you are. RadarScope’s GPS ensures that you can reposition and make adjustments as quickly as possible.

Windy

Platform: iOS, Android, Web Browser
Free, Pro Features Available

Windy is my favorite app for viewing model data on my phone or tablet. Best suited for detailed short-term forecasting at all geographic scales, Windy has a stunning display showing atmospheric flow around the world. View real-time observed data or model predictions in four dimensions. Windy provides two-dimensional maps at numerous heights throughout the atmosphere, as well as vertical soundings and time-series point forecasts for your specific location.

Windy currently provides model predictions for four models. You can find support for the GFS (American), ECMWF (European), and NAM (North American Mesoscale) models, as well as a German model called ICON, which stands for Icosahedral Nonhydrostatic.

Key Features of Windy

• Stunningly beautiful display for analyzing data
• Huge choice of weather parameters to plot
• Data available in four dimensions and all geographic scales, including point forecasts
• View both observed data and model predictions on the same map
• Includes forecasts for airports, sports/recreation, wildfires, tides, and much more
• Bookmark your favorite locations for easy reference
• While it doesn’t support plotting your location on a map like RadarScope does, Windy does have GPS functionality that allows you to quickly and easily get data for your current location.
• Supports both metric and imperial units

Pivotal Weather

Platform: Web Browser
Free, Pro Features Available

If you’re looking for comprehensive model data, Pivotal Weather is where you need to be. Best used for both short and long-term modeling, you’ll find detailed model forecasts for over 20 global, regional, and mesoscale models. Like Windy, Pivotal Weather allows you to display data in four dimensions at all geographic scales. It works on a global scale, so you’re not restricted to specific countries or other geographic boundaries. We used Pivotal Weather extensively during our analysis of Hurricane Henri and Hurricane Ida last summer.

My favorite feature of Pivotal Weather is its high quality maps. So many weather modeling websites have such poor quality maps that it can be difficult in some situations to pin down exactly where a weather event will take place. While it’s not a big deal on a large scale, it can become a major issue once you drill down to the local level. Pivotal Weather lets you plot model data at those local levels, plus displays the predicted value as you mouse over the map.

Key Features of Pivotal Weather

• More than 20 global, regional, and mesoscale models
• Provides data worldwide
• Displays model predictions in four dimensions at all geographic scales
• Numerous choice of map scale levels
• Much higher quality maps than most weather modeling websites.
• You’ll get the best experience viewing on a computer, not a phone
• Additional features available with Pivotal Weather Plus

Federal Weather Bureaus

Platform: Web Browser
Free

How many times have you opened a free app or website and just got bombarded with ads, pop-ups, and other promotions? That’s why I often go straight to the source for weather data and information: the federal government. Because federal weather bureaus in every country are government agencies, you won’t get bombarded with all the ads, video clips, and other useless promotions you find on so many other apps and websites.

Federal weather bureaus are one-stop shopping for observations, forecasts, analysis, and past data. In addition to their own analysis, most federal weather bureaus provide the data so you can also do your own analysis. You’ll have all tools to look at all geographic scales, regardless of whether you’re looking at the entire world or your neighborhood. Use the models and forecasts to identify the best spot for your shoot. Once you get out in the field, use observations to fine-tune and adjust your strategy and location as needed.

Here are a few links to federal weather bureaus around the world. If your country is not listed below, a quick Google search will find it pretty quickly.

National Centers for Environmental Protection

Platform: Web Browser
Free

If you’re in the United States, the National Centers for Environmental Protection, or NCEP, contains all of the weather information you need to plan and execute a successful outdoor photo or video shoot. Run by NOAA and the National Weather Service, NCEP is comprised of 8 centers. While they are primarily aimed at the United States, many of them make predictions that go beyond America’s borders.

The Possibilities for Using NCEP Weather Apps for Landscape Photography and Travel Videos are Endless

The possibilities for using these weather apps for landscape photography and travel videos are endless. Use the Climate Prediction Center to look at historical weather patterns to ensure that the weather will cooperate for your shoot. For instance, you don’t want to head down to the Caribbean to film a hurricane only to find out that a strong El Niño has neutralized the Atlantic Hurricane Season.

Additionally, visit the Aviation Weather Center for all your drone photography and video needs. Perhaps you want to try your hand at storm chasing? In that case, the Storm Prediction Center has all of the information you need. Likewise, use the Space Weather Prediction Center to plan your Aurora Borealis or astrophotography shoot. The list goes on and on.

I could write an entire blog post on NCEP alone, but you get the idea.

NOAA High Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) Model

If RadarScope is my favorite weather app to use in the field for landscape photography and travel videos, then NOAA’s HRRR model is its best compliment. Excelling in day-of-event modeling and forecasting, use the HRRR to anticipate any adjustments you’ll need to make in your shoot. Its 3 km resolution is fine enough to resolve most individual thunderstorms, making it an incredibly powerful tool for outdoor photography and videos. As a result, it has never let me down in every storm chase I’ve taken part in since 2011.

For example, consider a simple sunset shoot. Sounds easy enough, right? Conditions in the morning look perfect for a spectacular sunset. Unfortunately, you are completely unaware a storm system is moving in from the southwest. Thick clouds will cover the western sky, completely obscuring the sunset.

Thankfully, you have been monitoring the HRRR throughout the day. As a result, you see that your original plan for a spectacular sunset will go down in flames. Additionally, you see that the spectacular sunset will occur about 70 miles up the coast. You adjust your plan accordingly, leaving an hour earlier so you can get up the coast in time for sunset.

Most importantly, though, you capture one of the best sunsets you’ve ever seen. As soon as the prints hit your online store, they start selling like hot cakes. Imagine how different things would have turned out if you hadn’t been able to anticipate that storm system coming in.

Use the HRRR for All Types of Outdoor Photography and Videos

The HRRR includes highly detailed information for every type of outdoor photography or videography. That’s what makes it so powerful. You’ll be able to use it for everything from sunsets to winter weather, fire weather to space weather, and lightning to beach photography.

Next week, we’ll cover the HRRR model in detail. You’ll learn how to use the HRRR to apply storm chasing strategy to your outdoor photography and videography. After that, you’ll be armed with the tools you need to take your landscape photography and travel videos to the next level.

How Will You Use Weather Apps for Your Landscape Photography and Outdoor Shoots?

Weather is an often mundane part of our everyday lives. However, once you get out in the field to film it, weather seems to happen extremely fast. They key to success with any type of outdoor photography or videography is to stay ahead of the weather. These weather apps provide you with the toolset you need to take your landscape photography, travel videos, and other outdoor media to the next level. Use them responsibly, and always keep safety in mind first.

Do you want more photography and video tips and tutorials? Please sign up for our email list. We’ll send them to your inbox, twice per month, all for free.

The post 6 Powerful Weather Apps for Stunning Landscape Photography appeared first on Matthew Gove Blog.

Why Is Weather Forecasting Important for Landscape Photography?

Anyone can go out and take pictures of a beautiful landscape. We all have cameras on our smartphones these days. But what separates your “Average Joe” tourist from a world-renown National Geographic photographer? It’s a long list, but one of the primary reasons is that most tourists don’t take weather into consideration. They just shoot.

In the worst-case scenario, bad weather will ruin a photo op. At best, you’re missing out on an incredible opportunity. In most landscape photos, the sky takes up at least one third of the frame. That’s a lot of wasted real estate. On the other hand, use weather to your advantage and instantly set yourself apart from the bulk of the competition.

But just hoping you’ll get lucky with the weather is not enough. Getting the right weather for your shot is a crapshoot at the best of times. Without a strategy, you’re setting yourself up for a low success rate and an inefficient workflow. However, when armed with basic knowledge of weather models, you’ll be able to target your photo shoots with laser-like precision. The frustration will be gone, and you can enjoy much more efficiency and success.

Being Flexible and Adaptable is Key to Your Success in Weather Forecasting for Landscape Photography

Let’s say you get up in the morning hoping to get a good sunset picture later in the day. After a quick look at the models, you identify a precise location with ideal conditions for sunset photos. Even better, it overlaps with the evening Golden Hour. As you go through the day, model runs start showing a significant increase in thick, low-level clouds in the evening. Instead of giving up, toss your planned sunset shoot out the window. You pick a new location and shoot some breathtaking black-and-whites of dramatic sunlight shining through the thick low-level clouds on the rugged landscape like a spotlight.

Without the help of the weather models, you would have come away with nothing. When integrating weather into my landscape photography, I use the same strategy I did when I was storm chasing.

Applying Storm Chasing Strategy to Landscape Photography

On paper, storm chasing strategy is shockingly simple.

1. Look for where and when the ingredients for severe thunderstorms and tornadoes best come together.
2. Drive to that target area, arriving shortly before that window of peak potential opens.
3. Wait for storms to fire.
4. Once storms initiate, go chase them, keeping in mind the important balance of safety vs getting the shot.

Unfortunately, in practice, it’s never that easy. Your window of opportunity will constantly shift in both time and space. Better opportunities will appear elsewhere. Sometimes, those opportunities won’t even manifest, leaving you with the inevitable bust. Things happen incredibly fast when you’re storm chasing, so you need to be quick on your feet and always be able to react to whatever curveballs Mother Nature throws at you.

Thankfully, things don’t happen as fast in the world of landscape photography. Having more time to react means you have a higher likelihood of success. However, you’ll still need to be just as able to react and adjust, because Mother Nature will throw you curveballs. You can easily apply basic storm chasing strategy to landscape photography using different parameters. Instead of looking for where severe storms are most likely to occur, look for where you’ll get the best sunsets, golden hours, fog, etc. We’ll circle back to this in a bit.

Learn to Embrace Failure in Your Landscape Photography

When dealing with the weather, the only thing that’s for certain is uncertainty. Succeeding at storm chasing requires skill, quick thinking, and luck, as most tornadoes are only on the ground for less than 30 seconds. The same goes for lightning photography. If just 5% of your lightning photos come out, you’re doing extraordinarily well.

Rest assured, you will have a far greater success rate integrating weather into your landscape photography. They’ll be absolutely stunning when you get it right. But you must accept that things can and will go wrong. You will have days where you completely bust. Yes, it’s incredibly frustrating when it happens, but it’s part of the game. Always remember that even the best in the business have off days.

My Own Hero to Zero Experience

Over the course of 9 days in 2012, I pulled the ultimate hero to zero move. However, I still managed to get breathtaking photos despite the most epic storm chasing bust I ever experienced. On 19 May, a powerful storm system came off the Rocky Mountains and across the central Great Plains. Everything seemed to be in place for a massive outbreak of tornadoes across southern Nebraska.

I was living in Norman, Oklahoma at the time, and really didn’t want to drive all the way to Nebraska to have to fight the storm chaser crowds. Instead, I searched the models for a target closer to home. Models hinted at a very brief window opening up along the Kansas-Oklahoma border that was very favorable for tornadoes right before sunset. It wasn’t much of a window – only about 15 to 20 minutes, but it was low risk and high reward. I had to take the gamble.

Right on cue, storms were firing just as I crossed the state line from Oklahoma into Kansas. I got on the first storm I could find and hoped for the best. And boy, did that gamble pay off. Over the course of about 25 minutes, that supercell produced nearly a dozen tornadoes. A spectacular EF-3 tornado capped the evening off, creating a dramatic scene with the setting sun behind it.

The Sweetest Weather Forecasting Victory

Now, here’s where that victory gets even sweeter. The target up in Nebraska that looked really juicy at the start of the day completely fell apart. There was not a single tornado up there, while I got to enjoy the show in Kansas all to myself. As I drove back towards Interstate 35 to head home, I passed all kinds of chase vehicles going towards the storm. I knew the storm was already wrapped in rain and had finished producing tornadoes. They were too late.

An Epic Weather Forecasting Bust Leads to a Satisfying Day of Landscape Photography

Eight days later, I was back in the field for another round of storm chasing. This time, western Kansas was the target, and conditions looked very favorable for tornadoes. I ended up driving nearly 300 miles from Norman, and didn’t see much more than a couple fair weather puffy clouds. The capping inversion hadn’t broken. There would be no storms that day. Then I had to drive the same 300 miles home.

After abandoning the storm chase, I was determined to come home with something…anything. I knew the spring wheat harvest takes place in late May in western Oklahoma, so I decided to try to get some photos of the wheat fields in the late afternoon sun and then catch the sunset at Gloss Mountain State Park. If you’ve never seen wheat fields at harvest time, I highly recommend it. You’ll see right away why Katharine Lee Bates used the “amber waves of grain” lyrics in America the Beautiful.

The photos were certainly nothing I’d be rushing out to try to sell to an art gallery, but as an alternative to coming home empty-handed, it was oddly and uniquely very satisfying.

Weather Forecasting Models for Landscape Photography

For landscape photography weather forecasting, I use the same models that I use for my weather analyses and storm chasing. For the greatest success, you’ll want to use a combination of global and regional models over both the short and long term. My goal here is to introduce you to each model so that you know when to use each model, as well as what their strengths and weaknesses are. We’ll dive into model interpretation and analysis in a future post.

What Is Output When the Weather Models Run?

All weather models output their forecasts in four dimensions: latitude, longitude, height, and time. Logic may dictate that the output formats may vary from model to model, but in reality, they generally output the same three formats.

• 2D Geographic Maps
• Vertical Cross-Sections of the Atmosphere
• Time Series Graphs

For basic landscape photography weather forecasting, you can gather all you need from the 2D geographic maps, so these tutorials will focus our efforts on those maps. If you’re interested in learning more, we will cover the other two outputs in future tutorials and online courses.

Global Forecast System (GFS) Model

The GFS model is one of the go-to models for general global forecasting. It has received criticism in the past for poor performance, most notably when it predicted that Hurricane Sandy would go harmlessly out to sea. As a result, the model received major upgrades in 2017, 2019, and 2021. While it has performed much better as of late, especially with tropical weather, the GFS has still not fully closed the performance gap with the European model.

European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Model

The ECMWF model has been around since 1975, but really cemented itself amongst the world’s top weather models when it absolutely nailed its prediction for Hurricane Sandy. Even 10 days out, the ECMWF missed the exact location of Sandy’s landfall by less than 100 km. Today, the ECMWF is still considered to be the most accurate global model, but other models are closing the gap. However, in 2020, ECMWF scientists were awarded time on the world’s most supercomputer to run their model at a 1 km resolution on a global scale. If that can be successful in the long-term, it will be a game changer.

United Kingdom Meteorological Agency (UKMET) Model

The UKMET model is designed for making medium-range forecasts throughout the entire northern hemisphere. However, it is best known for being used in tropical weather prediction. It is routinely used in tandem with the GFS and the ECMWF when making forecasts.

Global Deterministic Prediction System (GDPS) Model

Also known as the GEM model, Environment Canada originally created the GDPS model as a comparison or check to the GFS model. While it is now the default weather model that the Government of Canada uses, it can be used interchangeably with or in place of the GFS model.

North American Mesoscale (NAM) Model

20 years ago, the NAM was the best model available for storm chasers. While other models have since overtaken it, the NAM is still a very accurate model for significant weather events across North America. It initializes itself with GFS data, so it’s backed by one of the most respected models in the world.

Rapid Refresh (RAP) Model

Designed as a fast-updating version of the NAM, the Rapid Refresh model is a favorite amongst storm chasers and hurricane fanatics alike. When using it for storm chasing, it’s one of the most accurate models available today. However, you must keep in mind not to rely too heavily on it. Its 13 km resolution is too coarse to resolve individual thunderstorms.

High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) Model

The HRRR model is the most accurate short-term model available today. I used it all the time for storm chasing, and it never let me down once. Its 3 km resolution if fine enough to resolve nearly every type of weather phenomenon, allowing you to pinpoint precise targets with laser-focused accuracy. In the context of weather forecasting for landscape photography, use it to target sunrises, sunsets, storms, cold fronts, fog/mist, snow, and much more. You can even go beyond Earth’s atmosphere and use it to identify the best nights for astrophotography.

Where to Get Weather Model Output Online

Are you ready to dive into the models and take advantage of weather forecasting to improve your landscape photography? The outputs for all of the models we have covered are readily available online free of charge. While I am in no way affiliated with any of the following organizations, these are my favorite resources for weather models, in no particular order. You can find many more with a quick Google Search.

• Twister Data
• Pivotal Weather
• NOAA NCEP Model Analyses and Guidance
• NOAA: Rapid Refresh and HRRR
• Penn State University E-Wall

General Strategy for Model Analysis and Weather Forecasting

We will dive into model analysis in much greater detail in future tutorials and online courses, but I wanted to at least give you a brief intro. Without knowing how to analyze them, the models are completely worthless. This strategy can be applied to any type of modeling. It’s not limited to just weather forecasting or anything to do with landscape photography.

First and foremost, always use multiple models, regardless of the type of forecasting you’re doing. The more models you have in agreement, the higher the confidence in your forecast will be. Additionally, consider the Hurricane Sandy example. The GFS showed Sandy going harmlessly out to sea. All the other models showed it slamming into the east coast of the United States. Imagine what would have happened if emergency management had been using only the GFS. They would have been caught totally flat footed. Once you have the models selected you want to use, start with the following strategy.

1. Look at the current observations and the synoptic (large) scale picture. What’s going on at the regional and/or national level?
2. Then start to drill down to your target area. As you zoom in, use models with a finer resolution if you can. You can’t understand the small-scale meteorology without knowing what’s going on at the large scale.
3. Look for where the parameters for your desired photography best come together.

Know Which Models to Favor in Your Weather Forecasting

If the models you’re using do not agree, it’s critical to know which ones to favor. You can conduct a quick model evaluation by answering the following questions.

• How have the models performed in recent runs? Have they been accurate?
• How has the model historically performed for the type of weather you wish to include in your landscape photography? Look at its performance over the past 5 years or so.
• Has the model been consistent from run-to-run? Or is it all over the place?

Remember how consistent the GFS was during my analysis of Hurricane Henri? That’s why I favored it so heavily in my forecasts. And in the end, it ended up being correct. In the 48 hours prior to landfall, the other models brought Henri’s projected track as far west as New York City prior to swinging back east. Henri made landfall near Westerly, Rhode Island.

Model Parameters You’ll Commonly Use Weather Forecasting For Landscape Photography

Weather models calculate and output tons of parameters. For landscape photography, there are several that you will routinely use.

• Temperature
• Wind, Height, and Pressure
• Dewpoint and Relative Humidity
• Cloud Cover, given as a percentage
• Predicted Radar
• Precipitable Water (how much water is available in the atmosphere to make precipitation)
• Vorticity and Vertical Velocity (used to determine if cloud cover is increasing or decreasing)

We’ll cover parameters specific to severe, fire, and winter weather in a future tutorial.

Quick Overview of Weather Forecasting Parameters in Landscape Photography

In landscape photography, you’ll find that you have a core set of parameters that you routinely use. Here are some of the most common ones.

Next Steps

Now that you’ve been introduced to the models, the next step is to dive into how to use them. In the next tutorial, we’ll expand on the last section. You’ll learn what each weather forecasting parameter is as well as how to apply it to landscape photography. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below or email them to me directly. I look forward to seeing you in our next tutorial.

Top Photo: Beautiful Fall Cape Cod Sunset
Woods Hole, Massachusetts – October, 2021

The post 7 Weather Forecasting Models That Will Improve Your Landscape Photography appeared first on Matthew Gove Blog.

Weather can be an incredibly powerful way to set the mood and tell your story. Indeed, you can use weather not just in your landscape photos, but also in other types of photography, as well as videography. While photography is primarily a visual medium, when executed properly, use of weather in your photos will stimulate other senses as well, such as sound, smell, and feel.

A grey, snowy scene might conjure up a cozy feeling of sitting around a warm fire with the smell of hot coffee or hot cocoa wafting through the room. On the other hand, a picture of a bright and sunny tropical beach bursting with vibrant colors puts you in a relaxing mood. Close your eyes and you’ll be able to feel the warm, gentle breeze and smell the salty air coming off the ocean. You don’t just want your viewer to see the scene in your photos. You want them to experience it.

Make a Specific Weather Feature the Subject of Your Landscape Photos

There can be a fine line between weather and landscape photography. And I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve toed that line more times than I can remember. While it may seem like everyone has their own definition these days, I prefer to keep things simple. If the landscape is the subject of the photo, it’s a landscape photo. Likewise, if the weather is the subject of the photo, it’s a weather photo.

So what kind of weather features can you use as the subject of your landscape photos? Turns out, just about anything. The only weather feature that really doesn’t work is a cloudless, sunny day. I would argue that no matter how hard you try to make the cloudless, sunny day the subject of your photo, your viewers’ eye will always be drawn to the landscape. However, I find that some weather features tend to perform better than others.

• Lightning
• Tornadoes
• Severe Thunderstorm Clouds and Cloud Formations
• Snow
• Heavy Wind
• Fog and Mist

And that’s just to name a few. The good news is that no matter where in the world you are, you have both landscapes and weather. You’ll need to know what the best photo opportunities are based on the landscape, season, and typical weather patterns. I certainly wouldn’t be trying to get pictures of snowy, majestic mountains in Texas or pictures of fog and mist in Arizona.

Example #1: Go All-In and Transform Your Landscape Photos into Weather Photos

If you have a homogeneous landscape or a landscape that leaves a little something to be desired, you’ll want to go for the straight weather photo. Anyone who has gone storm chasing in Tornado Alley has used this strategy. Coupled with the fact that these photo ops are restricted to such a small geographic area for only a few months of the year, it’s why photos of supercells and tornadoes so often leave you in complete awe.

Let’s look at a few examples of true weather photos. The landscapes in these photos all have one thing in common. Can you figure out what it is?

Were you able to spot what the landscape in all three photos have in common? They are all homogeneous landscapes that are, on their own, actually quite boring. It’s the weather in each photo that gives it its pop and pizazz. If we take the weather out of those photos and just look at the landscape, you won’t feel much of a reaction. As a result, your viewer won’t be able to get that fully immersive experience that truly great photographs can offer.

Example #2: Use Weather to Subtly, yet Powerfully Draw Out Reactions and Emotions in Your Landscape Photos

On the other hand, what if you’re somewhere that has particularly beautiful or dramatic landscapes? You’re probably a little hesitant to completely abandon the landscape in your composition like we did with straight weather photography. I don’t blame you!

Instead, you want to leave the landscape as the subject of the photo and use weather to set the mood, trigger an emotion, or tell a story. To illustrate how to properly do this, let’s take a trip down to the white sandy beaches of Florida. You should feel two very different emotions when you look at these photos, which were taken within just a few miles of each other.

How did you feel when you looked at those photos? The first photo should leave you feeling relaxed, secluded, and tucked away. You may even feel refreshed at the thought of cooling off in the inviting waters. On the other hand, the second photo should get the adrenaline pumping a little. You probably feel a bit threatened or exposed, too, like you need to get to shelter.

We’ve only just scratched the surface of showing how powerful weather can be in landscape photos. You’ve got two photos with very similar landscapes that would not appear boring or homogenous on their own. Yet at the same time, two very different weather phenomena leave your viewer feeling two very different reactions to each respective photo.

Before we move onto the next section, have a look at some more examples of using weather to draw out reactions and emotions in landscape photos. Pay special attention to how you’re reacting to seeing each photo. Then use those feelings to inspire your own landscape photography.

Use Color Theory to Your Advantage

The premise of color theory is simple. You want to use complimentary colors that not only look stunning together, but can also provoke reactions and emotions that align with your brand’s mission and values. You can keep color theory as simple as just looking at a color wheel, or your can dive into the fascinating mathematics behind it. We covered it all in full detail back in July, so I’ll refer you there for the details about color theory.

That being said, do recall that there are four bases that make up the basis of color theory.

Keep Color Theory in Mind When Composing Your Photos

Have you ever seen photos from Havasupai Falls in Arizona? The brilliant red rocks provide a stunning backdrop to the brilliant turquoise waters in the falls. Yet when you look at photos of the emerald waters of the Colorado River inside of Grand Canyon, it just doesn’t generate the same reaction and emotions that Havasupai does. Why is that? They’re equally beautiful places.

The reason lies in color theory. The red rocks and turquoise waters at Havasupai falls are nearly perfect complimentary colors. You can actually mathematically prove that just the turquoise waters alone at Havasupai falls will look more stunning against the red rocks than the emerald waters of the Colorado River.

While I have never actually been to Havasupai Falls, I have been to the confluence of the Little Colorado River, which has the same brilliant turquoise waters as Havasupai. Have a look at the following pictures yourself. They were taken within about an hour of each other. Which one do you like better?

The Psychology of Color

I am no psychologist, but research has proven that different colors invoke different emotions. Indeed, businesses use the psychology of color in their branding and marketing. It’s very subtle, but when used correctly can be very powerful. It’s all done in the name of portraying your brand exactly how you want to.

For full details, here’s a really good article about the psychology of color.

Use Overcast Skies and Winter Landscapes for a Dramatic Pseudo-Black and White Effect

Embrace the lack of color on grey and cloudy days. While color theory can make those brilliantly colorful scenes dazzle, the lack of color can be equally as beautiful. As good as the lack of color looks on thick overcast days, it really shines in winter scenery. A little bit of color poking through a fresh blanket of snow can be spectacular.

While you can certainly go full black and white if you want, I prefer to use the little bit of color in those images to my advantage. Use it to highlight the subject of your image or to accent the scene around the edges, like I did in the above photos.

You can also use light to highlight parts of your image in the total absence of color. Look for a situation where you have sunlight shining through broken clouds that shines on your subject like a spotlight. It should really stand out against a dark and colorless backdrop. Add a little color to your subject, and it’s pure magic.

I do want to point out one important detail. Even though the background and foreground are dark and colorless, you can still both see it and tell what it is. This important detail gives your photo both depth and context. Without it, you won’t generate the reactions or evoke the emotions you had hoped.

Experiment with Different Times of Day When Taking Landscape Photos. But Even With the Addition of Weather, the Golden Hour is Still King.

Armed with basic knowledge of weather and color theory, there is no bad time for landscape photography. I don’t ever want to hear an excuse that you can’t take landscape photos in the middle of the day because the shadows are too harsh. Go out and take them anyway. You’ll be surprised at what you get. Even more, in the worst case scenario, just delete them if they’re no good. Nothing lost, nothing gained.

I also encourage you to try taking landscape photos at night. You can add some really cool effects to your photos using long exposures at night. If you’re in a really dark area, try looking beyond the weather and into outer space. Try to capture the Milky Way Galaxy in the sky or use a really long exposure to show the Earth’s rotation in the stars. On the other hand, if you’re just beginning, start out with a classic cityscape at night. You can’t go wrong with the glistening skyline of your favorite city lit up at night.

The Golden Hour Remains Second-to-None

While you can certainly make the argument that you can take beautiful landscape photos at any time of day, the Golden Hour remains the best time of day for landscape photography. No amount of weather can change that.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Golden Hour, it refers to the last hour before sunset and the first hour after sunrise. During that hour, the low sun casts a warm glow across the landscape. Long shadows add relief, texture, depth, and drama to your photo.

Not surprisingly, some of the best landscape and weather photos I’ve ever taken came during the Golden Hour. While I consider myself very fortunate to have such beautiful landscapes in Arizona, the Golden Hour photos I’ve taken elsewhere rival the Arizona photos more often than not. I could go on, but I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

A Dramatic Sky and a Dramatic Landscape Are Spectacular Together

This one is simple math. The best of your weather composition plus the best of your landscape composition equals spectacular unrivaled beauty.

Use Long Exposures to Add Motion to Wind, Rain, and Snow in Your Landscape Photos

Because lighting for landscape photography cannot be controlled in a studio, using long exposures can risk permanently losing data to overexposure. To combat overexposure, shoot during the Golden Hour using a small aperture and/or filters. Once you lose data to overexposure, no amount of post-processing can recover it.

If you’re using certain types of weather to improve your landscape photos, showing motion is critical to your viewer being able to get the maximum experience. Unfortunately, showing motion in weather often subjects you to shooting in heavy wind. As a result, you really need to be using a tripod if you want any kind of viable results. Trying to hold the camera steady just won’t cut it. If you don’t have a tripod, try to use an elevated surface, post, or tree limb to hold your camera steady. It’s not perfect, but it’s a lot better than nothing.

To properly show motion in your landscape photos, only the objects that are actually in motion should appear to be moving. Everything else should be steady. If you try to show everything in motion, you’ll just wind up with a blurry photo. It’s the same as when you try to please everybody, you end up pleasing no one.

It’s generally okay to show small amounts of motion in objects that sway back and forth in the wind. I’m talking about the ends of tree limbs, flags, waves, moving vehicles, and the like here. If your photos depict entire trees and buildings in motion, you’re not doing it right.

Here are a few examples of photos that show motion correctly. I also want to point out that some of these certainly fall into the category of weather photos as opposed to landscape photography.

After the Storm Can be a 24-Hour Long Golden Hour

When I lived in Oklahoma, one thing that really struck me was just how spectacular the weather was after a major severe weather event. Never was this more true than following the 20 May, 2013 EF-5 tornado that tore through Moore, Oklahoma. A few days after witnessing that disaster unfold firsthand, I was sitting in my back yard reflecting on what had happened. The sun was out, temperatures were cool, and the weather was absolutely perfect.

As I reflected on the tornado, it dawned on me how some of the most breathtaking landscape photo ops occur during the first 24 hours immediately following a storm. This is exceptionally true following blizzards and winter storms. You can’t beat a fresh blanket of snow on any landscape. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

You can also find some extended Golden Hours leading up to storms. In the case of severe thunderstorms, you’ll find amazing photo ops out in front of the storm as it approaches, too. This is what the entire concept of storm chasing is based off of, so I could write an entire post on it. However, that’s a discussion for another day.

Conclusion

Weather is one of the most powerful and effective ways to inject new life, mood, and story into your landscape photos. From dramatic scenes to vibrant colors to the beautiful Golden Hour, there’s something for every landscape photographer’s style. No matter where you are in the world, you have both weather and landscapes at your fingertips to perfect your craft.

The strategy to using weather to get good landscape photos is similar to storm chasing. A little knowledge of weather and forecasting will put you ahead of the competition. You’ll know where the best spots to target for the best landscape photos are instead of just having to guess. You won’t always get it right, and it won’t happen overnight, but your landscape photos will go from good to amazing.

Want even more photography tutorials? Please checkout out our full collection of photography guides and sign up for our email list (in the sidebar at the top of the page), where you’ll receive free photography tutorials directly in your inbox.

Top Photo: An EF-3 Tornado Tears Across an Open Prairie During the Golden Hour
Harper, Kansas – May, 2012

The post How to Use Weather to Take Amazing Landscape Photos appeared first on Matthew Gove Blog.

As I began planning my COVID-19 cross-country road trip last fall, my goal was to avoid the worst of winter across the midwest and northeast. Little did I know that the North Pole would come down and so kindly greet me as I crossed Tornado Alley. The Polar Vortex shattered all kinds of records and left several states – most notably Texas – under a significant emergency.

What is the Polar Vortex?

The Polar Vortex is a large area of very cold air that circulates around both the North and South Poles in the wintertime. Under normal conditions, the stability of the atmosphere keeps the Polar Vortex locked around the poles.

However, certain triggers high above the Earth can cause the Polar Vortex to rapidly destabilize and plunge southward (northward in the Southern Hemisphere) into the mid-latitudes. One particularly powerful trigger occurred in late January, 2021.

What Triggers the Polar Vortex to Destabilize?

To understand how the Polar Vortex behaves, we must travel about 20 to 50 km above the earth’s surface, well above where any weather happens or any airplanes fly. This part of the atmosphere is known as the stratosphere, and contains the far outer ranges of where weather balloons can travel.

Temperatures in the stratosphere are frigid. In the past 40 years, meteorologists have measured temperatures as low as -96°C (-141°F) in the stratosphere. Those cold temperatures are what holds the Polar Vortex in place above the poles.

Armed with that knowledge, you can probably deduce what causes the Polar Vortex to destabilize: a sudden and significant warming of the stratosphere. That’s exactly what happened in January, 2021. In less than 24 hours, the stratosphere warmed by 45°C, or 81°F. It was one of the most extreme stratospheric temperature swings ever recorded.

The January, 2021 destabilization was so powerful that it caused the Polar Vortex to completely fracture in half. One half plunged into the central and eastern parts of the United States and Canada. The other half dove south into Siberia. Temperatures in Yakutsk, Russia dropped to a bone-chattering -58°C (-73°F).

Have We Seen a Polar Vortex Like This Before?

You don’t have to go back very far to find a similar meteorological setup. In January, 2015, meteorologists observed a similar warming of the stratosphere above the North Pole. Shortly thereafter, the Polar Vortex split, sending parts of the US, Canada, and Russia into one of their coldest and snowiest winters ever.

One particularly interesting phenomenon is how the strong Polar Vortex makes the east coast of both the US and Canada so vulnerable to major snowstorms. Indeed, two blizzards crippled New England on 27 January and 15 February, 2015. That was only the beginning of a true snowmageddon winter.

Between the two storms, many locations in southeast New England received between 6 and 8 feet of snow. Boston was one of many cities that ran out of places to dump their plowed snow. Even once summer arrived, you’d still see some snow piles driving around. There was so much snow piled so high it took that long to melt. Not surprisingly, we all got a pretty bad case of cabin fever that winter.

Thankfully, 2021 did not suffer the same fate.

A Beautiful Day Across Central New Mexico

If you hadn’t looked at the weather before hand, you would have had no idea what lay ahead with the Polar Vortex. Temperatures were unseasonably warm as I made my way across the high deserts of eastern Arizona and western New Mexico.

As I descended into Albuquerque, the mercury topped 70°F (21°C). Even with strong winds, it made for very pleasant driving. However, once I climbed back out of the valley, things really began to change. Thick mid-level clouds replaced the warm sun and blue skies. You definitely had that feeling of “something crazy is about to happen” in the air.

Santa Rosa, New Mexico: Running Head-On into a Freight Train of Cold Air

If you’ve ever driven Interstate 40 across New Mexico, you know that it’s largely a vast emptiness of open desert. Aside from the occasional blink-and-you-miss-it town, you’re at the mercy of Mother Nature.

As I got further east of Albuquerque, that layer of mid-level clouds got progressively thicker, darker, and lower. Despite the ominous outlook, temperatures remained quite pleasant, hovering around 65°F (18°C). As I approached the town of Santa Rosa, New Mexico, things took a dramatic turn.

When I lived in Oklahoma as a meteorology student, I saw my fair share of wild weather. Whether it was EF-5 tornadoes, ferocious wildfires, thundersleet, a quakenado, or massive hail, it was nothing like what I saw punching through the Polar Vortex. Just when I thought I had seen it all, Mother Nature threw me something new. Wrap your head around this temperature drop.

For a different perspective, here is that same data on a time-series graph. Click on the graph to enlarge it.

And to think, this was just the tip of the iceberg.

Entering the Freezing Fog Twilight Zone in Texas

Between storm chasing, road trips, and photography adventures, I’ve driven across the Texas panhandle more times than I can remember. My favorite part of the drive is looking out at the open prairie. You can see forever, and really gives you a sense of freedom being on the open road.

What a contrast this trip turned out to be! As a result of the Polar Vortex invasion, we were treated to one of the rarest, and surprisingly, most dangerous weather phenomena in Texas: freezing fog.

What is Freezing Fog?

Freezing fog is no different than regular fog, with one distinct difference. Water droplets in freezing fog are supercooled, meaning that they are below freezing, but remain in liquid form.

Why do they remain as a liquid if they’re below freezing? Water molecules freeze much more efficiently when they are in contact with other particles versus being pure water. These particles can include sand, dust, minerals in tap water, and objects such as trees and vehicles.

Fog forms when water vapor condenses out of the air. Those fog droplets are pure water, and therefore freeze less efficiently.

Why is Freezing Fog so Dangerous?

Whenever water remains in a supercooled state, it poses an enormous risk to both vehicles and airplanes. Remember that we just reviewed how water freezes much more efficiently when in contact with other particles than when it is pure water?

When a supercooled water droplet comes into contact with something other than pure water, it instantly freezes. While freezing fog coming into contact with trees and grasses is largely harmless, it’s a much different story when it freezes on roads, overpasses, and your vehicle. Black ice is dangerous enough to begin with. It’s even more so in places like Texas that are not used to seeing it.

How Does Freezing Fog Form in a Hot, Arid Climate Like West Texas?

Warm air can hold much more moisture than cold air. Most of that moisture is in the air as water vapor. We measure it with either the dewpoint or the relative humidity.

When air cannot hold any more moisture, it reaches saturation. Any more moisture that gets added after that condenses out either as clouds or precipitation. There are two ways to reach saturation.

• Add moisture to the environment. You see this when the bathroom fogs up as you take a shower.
• Lower the temperature of the environment. There is no better example of this than when you see your breath on a cold day. Your warm breath has more moisture than the ambient cold air can hold, so it condenses out as a fog.

The powerful cold front I had punched through in eastern New Mexico had swept across the Texas Panhandle only a few hours earlier. Even in an arid environment like West Texas, the temperature dropped so extremely and rapidly that the air could not hold what little moisture it had. As a result, the excess moisture condensed into a freezing fog.

It was almost as if you could see Mother Nature’s breath.

Enter the Polar Vortex Twilight Zone

Being used to crossing the Texas panhandle in the summertime made this experience even more unique. The freezing fog shrouded everything in an eerie haze reminiscent of some kind of twilight zone. In addition, the Polar Vortex had been in place just long enough to start coating the landscape with a visible layer of ice. The setting late afternoon sun made that haze even eerier.

The deeper I got into Texas, the longer the bitter cold Polar Vortex air had been entrenched in place. Temperatures continued to plummet. Not surprisingly, the fog got thicker the further east I got. The setting sun slowly swallowed you into that twilight zone of darkness.

Things got even weirder as I crossed into Oklahoma.

Oklahoma? More Like Snow-klahoma!

How many times have you seen something bad happen and thought, “that won’t happen here”? I’ve done it more times than I care to admit, including this trip. Once I crossed the state line into Oklahoma, it didn’t take long for me to realize the full seriousness and severity of the Polar Vortex. At a gas station in Elk City, I noticed that both the windshield cleaner and the hand sanitizer had frozen solid as I fought 50 mph (80 km/h) winds and -11°F (-24°C) wind chills to fill my gas tank.

The Polar Vortex Flexes Its Muscles

Less than 48 hours after arriving in Norman, the first of back-to-back snowstorms hit the Southern Plains. After just a few days of wild weather we had shattered all kinds of winter weather records.

Most notably, the National Weather Service measured the coldest temperatures ever recorded in the State of Oklahoma. The only Oklahoma saw colder temperatures occurred in the late 1800s, when it was still the Indian Territory.

Thankfully, the snow didn’t stick around for very long. Temperatures rapidly warmed as the Polar Vortex pulled out of the area. In true Oklahoma fashion, we were walking around in shorts and t-shirts less than a week later as temperatures soared to 74°F (23°C).

Having Fun with Physics During a Power Outage in Sub-Zero Polar Vortex Temperatures

It often feels daunting when you lose power during a storm. Initial panic sets in that much more when the power goes out when it’s -5°F (-21°C) out and blowing over 30 mph (50 km/h). That’s the exact situation we found ourselves in the middle of the heaviest snow during my stay in Oklahoma.

I awoke in the middle of the night. As I reached for my phone to check the time, I noticed that it felt chilly in the house. I figured the thermostat had been turned down at night, and I didn’t think much of it. It was about 5:15 AM, so I decided to check the weather on my phone to see how cold it had gotten.

Much to my surprise, my phone could not connect to the internet. Not only was the WiFi out, I had no cell service, either. Being in the middle of a city of 125,000 people, something was very wrong.

I sat up and noticed that all of the night lights in the hallway were flickering and and off. I kept thinking, was I back in the twilight zone I was in driving here? At that point, I knew it was only a matter of time before the power company pulled the plug.

Less than 5 minutes later, the power went out for good. All you could hear was the wind, the snow, and the transformers blowing up nearby. At that point, there wasn’t much I could do, so I rolled over and went back to sleep.

Physics and Thermodynamics: An Alternate Source of Entertainment

If you’ve ever studied physics, chemistry, or thermodynamics, you’ve probably heard of the ideal gas law. While it has its limitations, the law is a good approximation of many gases, including air, under many conditions. Mathematically, it is defined as:

pV = nRT

where

• p is the pressure
• V is the volume
• n is the amount of gas
• R is the ideal gas constant
• T is the temperature

Now, here’s where the fun starts. I slept on an air mattress while I was in Norman. Because the power was out, the heat in the house did not work, so the house cooled off. In terms of the ideal gas law, we know that R is already constant. Inside the sealed air mattress, both the amount of air (n) and the volume (V) are also constant. We can reduce the ideal gas law to a simple relationship.

p ~ T

In layman’s terms, that equation just means that as temperature changes, the pressure will change in the same manner, and vice versa. We were now about 3 hours into the power outage, and the house was really starting to feel cold. As the temperature continued to drop, I could feel the air mattress getting softer and softer until I could feel my butt hit the floor underneath the mattress.

Here’s the best part. Shortly after 8 AM, the power came back on. It was cold in the house, so I decided to stay in my nice warm sleeping bag until the heat could work its magic. As the house warmed back up, the air mattress reinflated as the pressure inside increased. Before I knew it, the ideal gas law had lifted my backside up off the floor, and the house had returned to its normal temperature.

Up Next

As memorable as my stopover in Oklahoma has been, this is not the end of my dance with the Polar Vortex and Old Man Winter. Next week, we’ll continue east and see if it really was that wise of a decision to go camping in the mountains in Kentucky in February…in the middle of an ice storm. All that and more right here next Friday at 9 AM Pacific Time. See you then.

Top Photo: Heavy Snow Falls During the Polar Vortex
Norman, Oklahoma – February, 2021

The post Pioneering Peril: A Pandemic Polar Vortex in Tornado Alley appeared first on Matthew Gove Blog.

While we are primarily focusing on maps today, don’t forget that maps are just one tool in a vast toolbox. When used with other tools, they can become even more powerful. Putting that aside, let’s look at why maps are the best tool we have to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

1. See Both the Big Picture and Local-Level Details at the Same Time

Back when I was chasing tornadoes in Oklahoma, we had several golden rules of storm chasing. The most important rule was to always pay attention to the big picture. Know what the storms in your vicinity that you are not chasing are doing. Why do you need to do that? Fair question. Here’s why.

One of the hairiest situations I got myself into storm chasing was the result of “tunnel vision” from not paying attention to the big picture. On 9 April, 2012, I got on a tornadic supercell just outside of Woodward, Oklahoma, which is in the northwest corner of the state. The storm produced the first few tornadoes I saw that season.

Almost all tornadic storms in the Great Plains move from southwest to northeast. Tornadoes typically form on the southwestern flank of a supercell, so the strategy is to set up to the southeast of the tornado and track parallel to it as it moves to the northeast. Because all of the rain and hail is north of the tornado, being south of the storm also gives you an easy escape route should you need it.

Losing Sight of the Big Picture

Unfortunately, I was so excited to see my first tornado of the year that I neglected to pay attention to the large scale system that was triggering the severe weather that day. The upper-level winds were atypical of the southern plains. Instead of going from southwest to northeast, these storms were moving from northwest to southeast. When I set up to the southeast of the storm, I inadvertently put myself right in its path. When the precipitation core inevitably swallowed me up, this was the result.

Unfortunately, in the case of COVID-19, the outcome of tunnel vision is already proving to be far more tragic than a blown-out windshield. People are paying for it with their lives. During the pandemic, I have observed instances of tunnel vision in both our elected officials and the general public.

How to Combat COVID-19 Tunnel Vision

The best way to combat COVID-19 tunnel vision is to coordinate with your neighbors. When Los Angeles County, California recently issued a stay-at-home order, there were immediately concerns that residents would travel to neighboring counties to eat, recreate, and more. Throughout the course of the pandemic, similar concerns have emanated far beyond southern California.

Here are a few examples of leaders getting it right and coordinating to combat the effects of tunnel vision.

• The governors of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut coordinating closings and re-openings.
• California, Oregon, and Washington have coordinated some closings and re-openings as well.
• The United States coordinating with Canada and Mexico to restrict non-essential cross-border traffic.
• Border closures and travel restrictions for citizens and workers throughout the European Union

So how do COVID-19 maps factor into the equation?

On a map, going from the big picture to the local level and vice versa is easy. Just zoom in or out. This is the foundation of how maps are such a powerful tool to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

2. Maps are Easier to Understand for the Average Joe

I consider myself an Average Joe when it comes to a lot of things. I hope you do, too. We all like to be presented with information that is easy to understand. Maps are a great way to do that, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Let’s say you want to look at new case counts for your state and the surrounding states. The following two graphics show new cases counts for US States on 2 December, 2020. Which one do you find it easier to do that on?

The graph?

Or the map?

I rest my case.

3. Easily Detect Geographic Trends

Geographic trends are one of the most important metrics for slowing the spread of COVID-19, especially early in the pandemic. Stopping the virus from freely flowing in and out of your community is a significant step towards containing it. This is why all of the travel bans and restrictions have been issued.

Let’s stick with the graph versus map example we just looked at. Consider the following hypothetical situation. You’re in charge of mitigating the spread of COVID-19 in West Virginia. You need to identify where the biggest COVID-19 threats are.

If you were to look at the graph, you would need to know what states border West Virginia, as well as whether they are located north, south, east, or west of you. Then you have to find those neighboring states on the graph, since they’re listed in alphabetical order. It’s a hassle, and there’s a ton of room for error.

On the other hand, these patterns can be instantly identified using the map. Using the map, it’s clear that the states with the highest new case loads are the ones north of West Virginia. You can easily repeat this exercise to identify additional COVID-19 threats on the map, such as from air travel, as well as threats to the economy and more.

Come on, Matt, I can Identify Neighboring States on a Graph.

Okay, fair point. The geography of the US is familiar. Here’s the counter. Consider another hypothetical situation where you’re brought outside of your familiar local area and repeat the exercise.

Here is the same bar chart as above, except it’s for total COVID-19 cases in Mexico by state. Try to quickly identify the regions surrounding the State of Guanajuato that have the highest confirmed COVID-19 case counts.

Were you able to do it? Unless you’re familiar with the layout of Mexican states, I’m guessing you probably couldn’t. Now, let’s introduce the map containing the same data as the bar chart. Try again to quickly identify the regions surrounding the State of Guanajuato that have the highest COVID-19 case counts. Guanajuato is pretty much smack dab in the middle of the country, just below the “Mexico” label on the map.

A quick look at the map shows that the highest case loads are to the southeast of Guanajuato, in the Mexico City area. Those high case loads are primarily in the State of Mexico (Estado de México) and the Federal District (Distrito Federal).

4. Analyze the Public’s Movement and Mobility Levels on COVID-19 Maps

I’m not talking about tracking people using their cell phone’s location data. That’s a debate I’d rather not get into. I’m talking about much less intrusive ways to monitor the movement of the general public. Depending on what country you’re in, these can include, but are certainly not limited to:

• Customs and Immigration
• Airport Security
• Department of Transportation Cameras
• Voluntary Surveys
• Other types of checkpoints

Analyzing these data on a map allows you to quickly and easily the mobility levels of the population. As a result, leaders can more precisely target any COVID-19 restrictions that need to be implemented or lifted. For example, did you see the map of flights over the United States in the days leading up to Thanksgiving?

5. Maximize the Efficiency and Targeting of Relief Efforts

Getting the proper relief into affected areas as quickly as possible is crucial in any disaster situation. The response to the COVID-19 pandemic is no different. A proper geospatial analysis on a map can facilitate the quick delivery of the following and more, ensuring that nothing goes to waste.

• Extra nurses, staff, and other essential workers
• Personal Protective Equipment
• Equipment required to treat COVID-19 patients, such as ventilators
• Cures, treatments, and vaccines
• Additional resources such as field hospitals and refrigerated trailers
• Economic relief to citizens and businesses

A proper geospatial analysis for expediting COVID-19 relief can be incredibly complex. Start simple with a map of COVID-19 trends.

Next, zoom in and start overlaying data that can help you pinpoint the areas that need relief. These areas can include, but are certainly not limited to the following.

• Low-income areas
• High population densities with multi-generational households
• Areas with few or overwhelmed hospitals
• Areas where the virus is surging
• Any disruptions to supply chains

Conclusion

Maps and geographic information systems are a critical tool in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They are powerful, versatile, easy-to-use, and provide an enormous amount of information on a single platform. At this point in the pandemic, we can only hope our leaders will make better use of COVID-19 maps.

Top Photo: Quartz Mountain State Park
Lugert, Oklahoma – January, 2012

The post COVID-19 Maps: 5 Reasons They are the Best Tool to Fight the Pandemic appeared first on Matthew Gove Blog.

Desert storms are rather unique in nature compared to many other locations and climates. Extremely dry air near the surface causes high bases of the thunderstorms, and can also lead to violent downbursts as the storm’s updraft collapses. As the moist air descends in the storm’s downdraft, evaporative cooling takes place as it hits the dry air near the surface, causing it to accelerate downward even faster than it already was. When it hits the ground, it fans out in all directions, and can cause violent winds, dust storms, and in certain cases, landspouts and tornadoes.

I downloaded the 24-hour data for July 30th (the day the storm hit) from my weather station onto my computer to look for patterns of the storm. Remember from my post on the storm that the mayhem all started between 8:00 and 8:30 PM (the storms would have arrived at Lake Pleasant a little earlier than that). As you can expect, some signs were obvious, and some were not. The temperature and humidity plots are pretty much what you would expect: rain cooled air causes temperatures to drop and humidities to rise. One interesting thing to note is the bump in dew point (the green line) while the storm passed overhead between 8:00 and 9:30 PM, since dew point is not dependent on temperature. That increase in moisture is from the precipitation as the storm passed overhead. We will confirm this later on with the precipitation plot.

The wind plot was an interesting one to look at, and should be taken with a bit of a grain of salt because wind sensors can give false readings during high winds, which can break them, and dust storms, which can penetrate the sensor’s bearings if it’s not set up properly. Furthermore, the terrain at Lake Pleasant can cause low readings, too. If you’ve never been to the lake, it’s surrounded by steep mountains, which can block the wind.

There are 2 things that immediately jump out at me at this plot:

1. The maximum wind gust measured at Lake Pleasant was 60 km/h (38 mph). This seems really low since there were confirmed wind gusts at the Deer Valley Airport and along the Loop 303, which are less than 10 miles from the lake but in open desert and away from the mountains, over 120 km/h (75 mph).
2. With the amount of wind that was associated with this storm, why is there suddenly no wind data between 9:30 and 10:30 PM? Did the sensor break or go offline? Did the mountains block the wind?

I can’t say for certain, but my inclination is that the mountains knocked the wind down and caused the low peak wind gust reading, and that the sensor went offline between 9:30 and 10:30 PM. The reason it went offline could be anything from a power or network outage to being struck by lightning.

Remember what I said earlier about the temporary bump in dew point related to the rain? When we look at the precipitation plot, you will notice that the bump in the dew point is about an hour offset (earlier) from the precipitation. The dew point increase lasts from about 7:30 to 9:30 PM, while the precipitation occurs from 8:30 to 10:15 PM. What gives?

Well, it turns out there’s a combination of things that cause the offset, and in reality, the rain actually arrives earlier than the plots show. The tipping bucket rain gauges that are used in today’s weather stations cannot measure the start of the rain. The “start” of the rain is indicated by the first tip of the bucket, which usually requires between 5 and 10 millimeters of rain to fall. However, it doesn’t make up for the full hour difference, especially given how hard it rains in some of these storms.

The increase in the dew point actually starts when the cool, moist outflow boundary or gust front passes over the weather station, which is usually well ahead of the rain arriving. In these types of monsoon storms in Arizona, the gust front is usually indicated by a haboob. If you’re inside the haboob, you’re actually in the cooler, moist air of the storm’s outflow, even though it probably doesn’t feel like it. So the offset in the dew point and precipitation data is caused by the moist air arriving ahead of the rain, and the rain actually starting before the rain gauge can measure rainfall.

Next up is the pressure plot. I know tornadoes and fronts are localized areas of low pressure, but when a storm passes overhead, the opposite actually happens: you may see a quick drop in pressure as the gust front approaches, but you will get a spike in pressure due to the cooler, more moist air in the storm’s outflow being more dense than the hot, dry desert air.

In the plot below, the gradual drop in pressure throughout the afternoon has nothing to do with the evening thunderstorm. It’s actually caused by the diurnal heating cycle that you see every day. It gets so hot in the Phoenix area this time of year that the air thins out enough for it to be detected by pressure sensors. You can pretty clearly see the spike in pressure starting around 7:30 PM as the gust front and the storm passes overhead.

The final plot is the visibility plot. While this plot has given me some bizarre readings at times, it actually did a pretty good job handling both the haboob and the thunderstorm. Visibilities less than 1 km were right on par with what I observed in the storm.

So again, you obviously can’t confirm any tornadoes from this data (you probably wouldn’t be able to even if the tornado made a direct hit on the weather station), but I think seeing this kind of data in real world examples is really cool. I have also attached the raw data from my weather station in CSV format from 6 PM to midnight in both metric and imperial units if you’re interested further.

data-download-metric.csv

data-download-imperial.csv

The post A Look at the Data From Last Week’s Possible Tornado appeared first on Matthew Gove Blog.

Before we begin, here’s a quick overview of the geography and how the monsoon storms work. The blue line is the approximate dividing line between the flat, low desert and the mountains, most of which range from about 3,000 to 7,000 feet above sea level. A very common setup in the summer is for storms to form over the mountains as air at the surface is forced up, and then the storms roll off the mountains, gaining momentum as they go downhill (just like a ball rolling downhill), and then come ripping across the desert floor. The storms last night did exactly that. In the radar loop later in this post, take notice of how the storms really start to accelerate very close to where the blue line of the map below, especially along the US-60 corridor, which runs northwest from Phoenix.

Shortly after sunset last night, the skies began to darken to our north and east as a line of severe thunderstorms rolled off the mountains. The first thing that hits with these storms is a haboob, which is a powerful dust storm that forms on the gust fronts/outflow boundaries in thunderstorms. When you’re sitting at home, dust storms are harmless, but they drop visibilities to usually less than 1/4 mile.

A haboob from a very similar storm 48 hours earlier approaches from the east

The haboob last night was even more eerie, as you could see the cloud-to-ground lightning strikes in it more and more prominently as it approached. As the sunlight faded into twilight, the winds increased further, and visibilities continued to drop. My weather station, which currently gathers its data from Lake Pleasant measured a maximum sustained wind of 60 km/h (37 mph) during the storm, but gusts at my house and throughout the area were much higher.

Now, when I say I have a suspicion that we were hit by a small tornado, you need to understand that the conditions I was working in allow it to only be just a suspicion. The video below was shot about 10-15 minutes before the suspected tornado hit. As you can see, daylight is pretty much gone, and we were in the middle of a huge dust storm. You could not see anything.

Around 8:30 PM, my first hint of a possible tornado was that the potted plants that I keep on a table on my back patio started elevating. I was able to get some of them inside before the mayhem started, but not all of them. The pots on these plants are the cheap plastic ones that don’t weigh anything and are about 6-8 inches in diameter. Perfect for becoming projectiles and missiles in this exact scenario. As I was coming back out to rescue the last few plants, I watched as the pots were sucked right off of the bottoms of at least 2 or 3 of the plants and out from underneath my covered patio before being thrown over the house and into the night.

My “garden” during more tranquil conditions

It was about right then that I was beginning to realize that standing outside like that probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do, so I retreated back into the safety of my living room. No more than about 5 seconds after I closed the door we were hit by a huge wind gust, which I estimated to be in the 120-130 km/h (75-80 mph) range. It was immediately followed by another gust of equal intensity, but in the exact opposite direction before the wind let off and returned to the direction it had been blowing. I have been scraping my brain all day, and still have yet to come up with something other than a small tornado that can explain that. By about 9:15 PM, the outflow boundary had gotten far enough out in front of the storm to cut off its fuel supply, so it began to rapidly weaken.

I got up this morning with one purpose: to try to find some evidence that had been left behind to support the theory of a tornado. A walk around the house revealed no damage to the house itself, other than a few of my covers for my external outlets were missing. When I lived in Oklahoma, looking for evidence of tornadic winds in trees and grasses was pretty straight forward. Doing it in a desert landscape like this is a whole other ballgame.

Barren Sonoran Desert landscape that would prove to be a challenge for finding evidence of a small tornado.

I wandered across the street and into the desert in the approximate path I though a possible tornado would have taken. I found a patch of grass that had been blown down in all different directions, but it’s next to impossible to say whether the storm did that or not. About 200 to 300 feet from the house I found a dead plant that I had been using as a marker in my back yard. It certainly could have been picked up by a tornado and dropped there, but it could have blown down there in straight-line winds, too. I eventually found my outlet covers, some of which were over 500 feet from the house, but the flower pots could not be recovered.

Despite all of the flower pots flying over the house, there was one instance where the plant completely vanished and the pot was left untouched.

The other telling sign of a possible tornado I found was back at the house. Inside of my grill stand, where the propane tank lives, I had wedged an empty plastic bottle way in the back corner behind the tank where there was no possible way it could just blow away in regular wind. I had noticed during the storm that the door on the grill stand got sucked open at one point, and when I looked there this morning, that plastic bottle was no where to be found.

So at the end of the day, did we have a tornado? It’s certainly possible, and maybe even likely, but I don’t have enough evidence to definitively say either “yes, we had one” or “no we didn’t”. We were hit by the end of the squall line that is most likely to produce tornadoes as it bows out, but finding evidence of small tornadoes even in the most ideal landscapes is challenging. Regardless, it’s been a wild few days, and I look forward to what the remainder of the monsoon has to offer over the next month or so.

In the next post, we will analyze some of the meteorological data from Lake Pleasant for this event. I’ll leave you with the radar loop of the entire event (watch how the storms accelerate as they come off the mountains and approach US-60 NW of Phoenix), courtesy of the National Weather Service in Phoenix.

The post Wild Night of Monsoon Storms and Possible Tornadoes in the Desert appeared first on Matthew Gove Blog.

This phenomenon is called a haboob, which is a very specific type of intense dust storm that forms on strong outflow boundaries or gust fronts of thunderstorm. They are often caused by air rushing out of a thunderstorm during a microburst or when the storm’s updraft collapses. They can be up to 100 miles long, 2 miles high, and frequently pack winds in excess of 50 mph, which can reduce visibilities to near zero in an instant.

The term haboob is an Arabic word that originated in the Sahara regions of northern Africa, but is an official meteorological term that has used throughout the world for almost a century. A haboob is a very specific type of dust storm, so all haboobs are dust storms, but not all dust storms are haboobs. If you’re still confused and would prefer to just call it a dust storm, that’s perfectly fine.

This past Monday, I was down at the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument to view some wildlife and explore some of the ranching history at the monument. I knew it was going to be an active monsoon day, but I never would have guessed that it would have turned into such an incredible afternoon of storm chasing almost by accident. We “chased” 2 dust storms, including the one haboob, and numerous thunderstorms from the Mexican border all the way back to Phoenix.

Monsoon thunderstorms begin to bubble up along the US-Mexico border east of Lukeville, AZ

Shortly before leaving the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, skies began darkening to the east as the monsoon storms started initiating over the nearby mountains. I wanted to start heading north in order to stay ahead of the storms, as that would offer the best photo opportunities.

Sitting just outside the northern boundary of the national monument is the town of Why. It’s a small and mostly forgotten town whose inhabitants today are mostly US Customs officers and Border Patrol agents. As I passed through town, I looked in the mirror and it looked like the mountains to the south were disappearing into thin air. The first dust storm of the day was here.

First dust storm of the day swallows the nearby mountains as it heads for the town of Why, AZ

I don’t think this first dust storm qualified as a haboob because it was a long way from the thunderstorms that had popped up and was unlikely that it was traveling on an outflow boundary or gust front. Second, it lacked the “wall of dust” property that defines haboobs, but passing over the mountains may have disrupted the appearance of being a wall of dust.

The 50 mile run from Why back to Gila Bend was uneventful. Back in Gila Bend, a quick look at the radar show that nearly the entire Phoenix metro was under a Severe Thunderstorm Warning, with a line of severe thunderstorms stretching most of the way down to the Mexican border. I knew that we were going to run into something along Highway 85 between Gila Bend and the I-10. The question was what. Was it going to be torrential rains? Flash flooding? Extreme winds? Dust storms? Hail? Intense lightning? There was only one way to find out. We turned north on Highway 85 and didn’t look back.

As skies rapidly darkened as we headed north, I was hoping that we would just see some heavy rain, as there was no evidence of dust storms on radar, but in the back of my mind I knew these were textbook conditions for monster dust storms.

The other issue that needed to be resolved fast was the issue of sheltering in the event of hazardous weather. Lightning and flash floods were my top concerns, since that is all wide open flat desert without any trees, hills, bridges, or anything else to hide under or on. Dust storms were also a concern because side roads to pull off on are few and far between along that stretch of highway, and just pulling off the highway is risky and dangerous at best.

As we continued north, I began to notice something underneath the thunderstorm that didn’t look quite right. There was definitely something underneath it, but it wasn’t rain, and was the wrong color to be hail, which left blowing dust as the remaining possibility. Blowing dust is a common occurrence in Arizona, especially during the summer, so I didn’t think much of it, and kept heading north. Less than five minutes later, we came around a bend in the road that passed through a little cut in the mountains, and when the terrain opened back up, that’s when it set in. Holy crap, that’s a massive haboob I’m driving straight at.

Strange color under the thunderstorm on the left side of the frame. Can you see the haboob?

The exact moment I realized: Holy crap, I’m driving straight into a giant haboob.

There are two things that make dust storms so dangerous when you’re driving: how hard is the wind blowing inside of it, and what is the visibility inside of it? On the roads, you really have to assume that the visibility will drop to zero if you drive into it, so getting off the highway and pulled off on one of the side roads was the next challenge.

When you’re driving 70 mph towards a haboob that’s already moving 30-50 mph at you, it’s amazing how fast it closes on you. As I looked for a side road to pull off onto, the wall of dust got closer and closer by the second. It only took about a minute or two before all I could see in front of me was the wall of dust.

Approaching the haboob. Do you see any side roads to pull of onto?

Running out of time to find a place to pull off.

Just as the wall of dust was about to swallow us, I saw a left turn lane in front of me. I couldn’t believe it. It was a side road into one of the shooting ranges in the area. I turned down it, and pulled off into a dirt turnoff/parking area less than 100 feet down the road, still facing north. I hadn’t even had a change to put the truck in park yet when the haboob hit, and it hit hard. Winds inside the dust storm were easily gusting over 50 mph, and while visibilities didn’t go completely to zero, they dropped to less than 100 yards pretty much instantly. You could see the far side of Highway 85, but that was about it.

Inside the haboob along Highway 85, looking southeast after visibilities started improving.

Thankfully, the haboob was moving fast enough we only had to wait about 20 minutes for conditions to improve enough to continue driving home safely. The haboob ended up swallowing the entire southwestern quadrant of Arizona over the course of the evening, and there were some absolutely breathtaking images of it as it approached the Yuma area. I lost track of it once it crossed into Mexico, but it was certainly a dust storm for the ages, and one of the coolest experiences I’ve had in a while.

The post Massive Haboob Swallows Nearly ¼ of Arizona appeared first on Matthew Gove Blog.