CENTRAL NEBRASKA — Sometimes it’s the events that you don’t forecast that turn out to bear the greatest amount of fruit when it comes to photogenic storms. Golden hour has its own way about it.
Sunday, May 26 was smack in the middle of the Memorial Day Holiday and I was more focused on spending time with family than paying attention to the weather.
Okay, truth be told, I am never that unplugged from the weather. I was aware that there was the possibility for some sub-severe storms and showers to pass across central Nebraska during the late afternoon and early evening hours.
After wrapping up the family meal, I happened to glance outside and saw some distinct clouds that I know to appear on the leading edge of a line of thunderstorms.
My parent’s home sits just south of the Platte River and given the chance to use the current as a foreground, I ventured outside to see what was clearly a line of weaker thunderstorms.
Getting down along the water’s edge, I began to snap photos as the storm complex approached the area. I have rarely had the opportunity to photograph storms right along the river channel, so I was making the most out of the opportunity.
I had to retreat back indoors after the rain began to arrive. I bid the remaining family members a good night and ventured into northern Phelps County to keep ahead of this moving line of storms.
I noted quickly that the outflow from the thunderstorms was kicking up a good amount of dust from fields that have not been tilled or just recently planted. There was a distinct thunderstorm to my south in central Phelps County that was bowing outward and the leading edge provided a good subject for photos.
I made it over to Road 747, which my family and I have referred to in the past as the ‘River Road.’
I was able to keep ahead of the rain as I headed east and saw that the rain wasn’t too heavy to block out the sun, which appeared as a luminance ball in the sky through the rain curtains.
Entering Buffalo County, I put a few more miles between me and the storm complex before I came to a stop. The leading edge of the storm to the south was the most photogenic at the moment, so I pointed my car the same direction and began recording video footage.
While the camera and GoPro rolled, I was outside of the car grabbing additional photos as the rain was right on the western horizon. Chasing the large supercells is exhilarating, but sometimes the sub-severe storms can provide a nice change of pace.
The rain approached closer and I knew it would eventually overtake me, which I was counting on. We were approaching a time period that storm chasers affectionately know as the ‘Golden Hour.’
The Golden Hour is generally understood to be that time in the evening when the setting sun’s rays are directed directly at or upward at storm clouds and the resulting colors can lead to a magnificent scene.
The time was also advantageous because if you have rain in front of you and the sun to your back, rainbows can appear.
Rainbows are formed when light from the sun is scattered by water droplets through a process called refraction. Refraction occurs when the light from the sun changes direction when passing through a medium denser than air, such as a raindrop.
As I headed up T Road toward Odessa, I crossed the Platte River and right on cue was a rainbow appearing halfway formed. I stopped the car at the river and across Interstate 80 to grab several shots of the colorful arc.
Arriving in Odessa, I knew the evening was going to be special. A full rainbow was on the eastern horizon with a faint double rainbow in place too.
In a double rainbow, a second arc is seen outside the primary arc, and has the order of its colors reversed, with red on the inner side of the arc. This is caused by the light being reflected twice on the inside of the droplet before leaving it.
I stopped the car on the eastern side of town and began to record additional video footage of the rainbow as the rain continued to fall around me. I would peak out of the car to grab a few photos before retreating to avoid being fully drenched.
Then, the real show began.
As the storm complex continued to move to the east, on the backside of the clouds, I saw mammatus clouds begin to pass over my area.
Mammatus are most often associated with anvil clouds and also severe thunderstorms. They often extend from the base of a cumulonimbus cloud, but may also be found under altostratus, and cirrus clouds.
True to their ominous appearance, mammatus clouds are often harbingers of a coming storm or other extreme weather system.
Typically composed primarily of ice, they can extend for hundreds of miles in each direction and individual formations can remain visibly static for ten to fifteen minutes at a time. They usually appear around, before, or even after severe weather.
To my amazement, the mammatus clouds began to move through the middle of the rainbow, blocking out the center of the arc, but providing their own spectacle.
As the mammatus continued to stream overhead, the true Golden Hour arrived as the setting sun cast its rays toward the storm and the cloud pouches began to turn a vivid pink color.
Wild mustard plants to my right provided a vivid yellow foreground as I continued to take photos as the clouds streamed overhead. The rainbow had not fully disappeared and was still visible on the northern and southern horizon.
To be able to capture scenes like this from within walking distance of my house was just the cherry on top of an evening that I had not planned to photograph storms.
As the light began to fade, I packed away my camera gear and watched the storm push off further to the east, leaving the area under clear skies.
Storm season and chasing has its own parallels to the rest of life, you might not expect the opportunities when they appear before you, but you have to be prepared to take advantage of them when they do.
Editor’s Note: My name is Brian Neben and this is my sixth year as storm spotter and chaser. I write a personal column about each outing, as it helps to collect my thoughts and I have felt like people enjoy reading about my success or failures perusing this rather niche hobby.
