best place to see big storms? (mainland US)

Factual Questions
1

Hi

I am visiting the mainland US for a few weeks, driving from LA to NY (in Utah now). I’d like to see (and photograph) some big lightning storms. Where’s the best place to see these sorts of thigs at this time of year?

(saw some nice ones driving from AZ to Utah yesterday arvo)

thanks.

a

2

Hi

I am visiting the mainland US for a few weeks, driving from LA to NY (in Utah now). I’d like to see (and photograph) some big lightning storms. Where’s the best place to see these sorts of thigs at this time of year?

(saw some nice ones driving from AZ to Utah yesterday arvo)

thanks.

a

3

IIRC from a National Geographic article that Florida gets the most lightning strikes but that sounds a bit out of your way on your present route. The great plains should be fertile ground during storm season.

4

Thanks. Where’s that?

5

The midwest. Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebrask, Illinois, southern Wisconsin and Minnesota, Ohio. Cool air from Canada meets warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico and generates lots of cumulo numbus clouds and that results in a lot of really noisy thunderstorms.

6

Excellent. Exactly where we planned to go.

Thanks guys.

7

It’s out great grass desert and you seem to be on the right path already as David Simmons said. Do watch out for tornados though as that is one part of the summer thunderstorms you don’t want to be around.

Curiously one of Nat’l Geo’s favorite lighting photo spots is the Tucson Mountains but you have already passed that. I live in Phoenix now but Tucson is my home town and just now I’m working in northeast Florida and have seen a few good lightning storms.

8

Colorado supposedly gets more lightning than any state except Florida.

Having lived there for many years, I can attest to this. Good lightning can be found along the Front Range (Boulder, Denver, Pueblo, etc.). …almost every Summer afternoon.

I think the hot air from the great plains and the cooler air from the Rockies has something to do with it.

9

Take I-70 through Kansas rather than I-80 through Nebraska. The big storms this time of year tend to form in that flatter, bleaker stretch of land.

10

Speaking of big storms… there is one going on right now. (Madison, WI)

11
      • I have read that New Mexico is supposed to have very violent lightning storms. What time of year to be there I don’t know.
        ~
12

I recall thunderstorms being pretty much a daily occurence in the summer when I lived in Boulder and Niwot, CO. If you situate yourself 10 miles or so east of the foothills you can see the whole show and the God rays after it passes by. Once it gets further out onto the plains you can see the whole system with the afternoon/evening sun lighting up the thunderhead. Pretty amazing.

13

Florida, IIRC, receives more lightning strikes per square mile than any other state largely because of the abundance of both heat and humidity for much of the year.

Here’s a map that seems to bear that out:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/05/photogalleries/lightning/

14

Reminds me of a couple from Baltimore who were passing through on I-40. They wanted to see some big storms, and they did. Got caught in some softball sized hail that beat their car to pieces.

15

So they were passing through “Front and Center” on I-40? Is that in Alabama? :smiley:

16

I-40 passes through Tennessee, not Alabama. Try I-20 or I-10 for Bama. The numbers get bigger as you go north or east.

The ones that bug me are like I-24 which also goes through TN, but from NW to SE, connecting St. Louis to Chattanooga. It could be construed as either a N-S or an E-W road, but gets the even-numbered coding for E-W. Its passage through TN is considerably more N-S than E-W, so I would have gone with the odd numbering for a N-S road.

Over…

17

Looks pretty quiet weather wise today, but I wouldn’t be surprised later this evening for there to be thunderstorms in the Midwest since it’s been so hot and humid today.

18

There are places in Oklahoma and Kansas that have storm chasing tours. They will drive you around in a van trying to get you a look at a tornado. Of course they can’t gaurante success.

19

[hijack] Do y’all not have thunder and lightning storms in Australia? I thought everywhere got storms and I figured Australia would get a lot for some reason. (tho’ I haven’t traveled much and this question probably displays my lack of worldliness) [/hijack]

20

Sorry, nope. Texas Panhandle…