Pictures

OU Asp Garage, Norman, OK | May 25th, 2025:

Some feisty hail (well over an inch) fell in Norman with this storm! Elsewhere received 5+ inches.

Norman, OK | May 18th, 2025:

I saw a couple severe thunderstorms for the first time this year from good ole Asp garage, my car's savior from hail. Speaking of which, some actually fell at my place earlier in the day but it was luckily no more than an inch. That's seen in the first picture! More severe hail was forecasted for later in the day, so seeing first-hand that the environment was primed for it, I took my car to Asp and witnessed a couple other cells build up. The best part I got to see was the mammatus, which I'm always all for! Not so much in the way of lightning or structure shots this time, though:

Me in realtime at everyone's Arnett tornado pictures haha:

Norman, OK | October 2024 - May 2025:

Just some nice, peaceful pictures I took over the past several months

Norman, OK | September 24th, 2024:

BEAUTIFUL sunset supercell seen from Norman this evening. It dropped some pretty hefty hail to the north around the Edmond, OK area (I believe mainly golf ball sized). This is it starting to die out. I love weather :3

Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado | July 17th 2024:

The long awaited Twister sequel "Twisters" has finally arrived. Technically, it gets released to theaters in two days, but a couple select theaters around the country got to have their own special screenings, including the Regal Theater in Moore, Oklahoma! News of this had spread around the National Weather Center (NWC) a couple months prior, so the vast majority of the theater was meteorologists. It was almost like a huge party seeing all my friends and higher-ups from NWC there. And I gotta say...I really liked the movie. As a spoiler-free review: my expectations were to the floor, and there were absolutely inaccuracies here and there, but a good portion of what was said was legitamite terminology (e.g., death ridge, low-precipitation cell, wind shear), and many of the instrumentation used actually does get deployed on supercells or for fieldwork in general. While at times generic, I found myself overall enjoying the plot and was invested in the characters and their motives. The special effects of the tornadoes were also top-notch! One thing I found odd was a lot of the parts that weren't logical were small enough that they could have been adjusted fairly easily (e.g., dialouge tidbits), but then there were others were such a huge part of the plot that criticism about them was going to happen no matter what. All in all, I still highly recommend this movie even for non-meteorologists, and I'm actually really glad it's doing so well in the box office. Here's a couple of pictures from the special screening!

Edit: Having now seen it a second time, I *particularly* recommend seeing the 4DX version.

Okay, so. If you missed it in my 'News, Updates, and More" tab, I was actually an extra for one of the days they filmed out here in OKC. It turns out I JUST BARELY made it in one of the scenes, though its only from a couple of shots lasting at most 3 seconds altogether, and you can't tell it's me as it's just my silhoutte. But, I'm a blob in the corner in the NWS scene that occurs in the first 15 minutes of the movie. Like the New York Times article (also in the News tab), it's not much but it's still so cool to say at least a pixel of me is in this! Not to mention the fact that I got to be in the same room with Daisy Edgar Jones, Anthony Ramos, and *!Steven Spielberg!* And I made awkward eye contact with Anthony Ramos, so guess that bridge is burned xD Here are pictures of my blobiness, go see the movie and support the back of your girl's head! As a bonus, my friends wrote the notebook that is shown in the barn scene, and the lidar truck operated by NSSL was in the gas station scene.

Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado | June 30th 2024:

I attended a friend's wedding in Colorado, and one of the stops on the way out was the Great Sand Dunes nestled alongside the Rockies! It would have been a stellar visit in of itself, but clouds at the time cooled down the sand and made it much more pleasant to climb and sandboard down the hills. We even got a nice cell with rain shafts to make for some nice pictures. Here they are below :D
Shoutout to my friend Kevin for making me look cool in the last picture!

Norman, Oklahoma | June 25th 2024:

Check out this beautiful supercell from the last storm in the Norman area before the awful summer heat kicks in T__T

Near Fort Cobb, Oklahoma | May 10th 2024:

Northern. Lights. IN OKLAHOMA. This was one of the most spectacular nights of my life. Some friends and I spontaneously decided to migrate away from city lights in the hopes of seeing them. We knew full well that, even with the strength of the solar storm, this was a hefty goal for Oklahoma. It was also a day I was particularly exhausted from working super late the night before anyway. But one of my friends saw the announcement of a G5 storm ranking (I guess you can call this the ‘High Risk’ of space weather?) and the adrenaline kicked in for a group of 5 of us to go. After all, it was a weekend, and there were no clouds with only a crescent…those three favorable factors were all I needed.

We traveled in the distance of the Fort Cobb State Park, originally intending to drive all the way there. But then photos started pouring in just from OKC and Norman of faint lights! So we just settled on an off-shoulder area still away from light pollution but closer to home to make for an easier drive back. The sky was dark, full of stars, and completely clear but we didn’t see anything…that is, until the cameras were busted out. I was just taking a test shot on super high exposure, and it was able to easily capture the lights! I honestly was taken aback by how well my camera captured them versus how much we weren’t seeing, but getting awesome pictures were a definite for everyone. Being out there was a really fun bonding experience of sharing stories, eating snacks, watching shooting stars, laughing at jokes, listening to coyotes and wondering if they or the people in the 3 cars that cruised by us would murder us. We had pretty much resolved we were just a tad too far south to see the lights without a camera and decided to just be happy to get cool photos. It was one of those times where you just enjoy the journey of the experience, even if the goal wasn’t fully completed.

Buuuuuut as we were getting closer and closer to leaving, the KP index shot up and the red part of the lights became more pronounced. This was noticed because I was the only one without a dead DSLR camera and was just continuously taking pictures for the group. One of the pictures was able to catch this spike (2nd picture below)! This was especially insane because the picture I took right before it looked the same as how it had when we first got there, and I couldn’t believe how quickly this drastic change happened. I showed everyone, we all faced where it was brightest, AND WE SAW THEM. It was super faint but gradually grew slightly brighter, and eventually the brightness overtook all the lights. We could then see streaks, glows, and even the red-green color contrast. This progression is seen in the rest of the pics below, as I kept taking them. They still weren’t as bright to our naked eyes as they looked below, but what we saw was amazing and enough for us. It was a fun game to think we were seeing a change in the streaks or colors but not be too sure, then to take a picture to see if we were right, which we usually were. It was also great because, unlike the eclipse, this event was over an extended period, so I wasn’t missing out on anything despite having camera duty; the shutter speed had to be set to 30-seconds to capture the lights efficiently, so I could just click the button and watch for 30 seconds.

This went on for about 15-20 minutes before starting to die down again, though some occasional fluctuations in vibrancy still occurred. It was 1am though and way past our bedtime, so we left it at that. We were so exhausted by the time we got back, but it was an incredible night that I don’t think any of us will forget. So final thoughts: based on this long story you can probably guess seeing the northern lights was a bucket list item pretty high on my list. So there’s really no adjective to describe my feelings of seeing one of the most beautiful sights this world offers us, both with and without a camera. I still aspire to one day see them in their full vibrant colors, but being only an hour from home and getting this experience…I have no words. I think this was also special to me because a ton of other people who maybe never thought they would have the time or money to travel north got to see them too. Kinda like the eclipse, it was one of the rare shared experiences so many people, regardless of their walks of life, could enjoy together. But don’t worry for anyone who didn’t get to see them — we’re entering the peak of the Sun’s 11 year cycle of increased solar activity, so I wouldn’t be at all surprised if something like this happened again within the next few years (in fact, it did last year in Oklahoma and I was jealous to miss those). Keep watching the skies, everyone, because this year has not disappointed!

Here’s my favorite because it captures the Big Dipper which looks like a ladle going in soup :P

P.S. Shoutout to my friend Michelle for capturing me taking pictures of the lights, with a bonus shooting star near the horizon (unless that’s Starlink..in which case, tsk tsk Michelle)

Norman, Oklahoma | May 9th 2024:

Beautiful cloud structure as a hail-filled cell made its way towards Oklahoma. Luckily it only dropped peas by the time it got here!

Oklahoma | April-May:

It’s been an active storm season and a tornado ended up causing damage only a block from my apartment. It tracked up north Norman and caused minor damage next to Stella Nova (a coffee place I study often), Homeland, and a small airport where a Mesonet station actually recorded the drop in pressure as it passed. It was mostly weak, but it was strong enough to tear off some of the gas station canopy. This was one of two circulations that hit Norman that night, and several surrounding towns over the past few weeks have been hit much harder. It’s tough, because some of those areas are communities I visited and the people have always been so kind. Having their livelihoods struck so intensely is rough to hear about, and it’s something you can’t understand until it directly happens to you. It’s definitely the dark part of severe weather. Hopefully the rest of the season isn’t so destructive. Here’s some pictures of some of the storms and the small damage near my place from the ones that came through Norman:

Antlers, Oklahoma |April 8th 2024:

And now for the 2024 eclipse. This was probably in the top 5 of the luckiest trips I’ve taken to see it. Originally, I was planning on going to Tyler, TX to experience it with a friend living out there, but the cloud cover was looking too extreme. So, I opted out having already seen it in 2017. But I did check the models the night and saw that the totality path in southwest Oklahoma was showing slightly more clearing than the thick clouds that were originally forecasted. This would’ve been less than a 2 hour drive over the 4 that it would’ve taken to get to Tyler, TX. I decided I would try for a day trip towards Antlers, OK right in the path of totality if conditions still looked good, but didn’t get my hopes up. I get up around 7am and [Lucky part #1:] the models looked even better, where any clouds that were forecasted were all cirrus and light. There was no traffic on the roads, so I decided to do the trip last minute. And even after lagging with packing and eating, [Lucky part #2:] there was hardly any traffic the whole way there! However, when I get there close to 10, there were THICK cumulus clouds, and the layer was so spread out that at that point relocating wouldn’t make much of a difference. Even though totality wasn’t until several hours later (~1:45pm), I really wasn’t confident they’d clear by then.

The hours tick by and the clouds are hardly budging; there were periodic breaks that you could briefly see the partial eclipse, but the coverage is so bad that I’m starting to admit defeat. I was at a Choctaw Casino-Gas station where I could connect to wifi and view the models. It was PACKED (guess that’s where all the traffic was) and [Lucky part #3:] I could park in the only space available because of my small car. Yay small cars! But people were stationing here because there was a field in the back that was surprisingly quite beautiful, and it was a nice spot for viewing.

So a lot of people were there with their eclipse glasses, periodically sneaking peaks at the partial eclipse the few times the clouds broke. Last time, I was only among about 10 colleagues for our research project, and I got to experience the quieter side of things. This time, I wasn’t picky where I ended up and just stuck with the gas station. Well, I typically would’ve vouched for a more desolate surrounding, but it ended up being more fun this way because there was being an emotional rollercoaster with the clouds about 15 minutes before totality time. They had started to thin and the gaps between them were becoming wider — this could be seen both visually and from current model runs. The crowd had a VERY audible reaction to this because they, like me, figured we wouldn’t see the actual eclipse and just resolved to experiencing the “night-time” aspect. But now there was an actual chance! Right before eclipse time, the clouds were still plentiful. But, [Lucky part #4:] a HUGE gap had exposed the sun. There were still thin clouds within it but it was completely visible. And wouldn’t you believe totality happened right then. I couldn’t. It was like a movie! Everyone was cheering and going crazy, myself included.

I can’t put my finger on why, but the eclipse felt even more surreal than it did in 2017. Maybe a mix of that adrenaline and because this time it was directly overhead and it just felt..bigger. Antlers, OK was at the edge of totality so it lasted less than 2 minutes, and the cloud deck did move over the Sun before it completely finished, but everyone there got to fully experience the eclipse even for that little bit. I was so happy I went!! The second the Sun started peaking out again, everyone was still going crazy about actually seeing it. I dipped. I was goooooone. And because of that I [Lucky part #5:] experienced no traffic on the way back home, including avoiding OKC's Monday rush hour. Final thoughts: I wish I could've shared the experience with my friend who lives in Tyler, TX (it sounded like the clouds broke enough to see it down there too), but I’m actually really glad I had less of a drive in case the clouds won this round. But even if they did win, I doubt I would’ve regretted the trip. After all, as a grad student I have the flexibility to take a random trip like that on a Monday (usually), and I think it’s worth taking advantage of if I have the chance. Actually seeing the eclipse again, especially with the adrenaline rush that those around me had, made the experience even better, despite initially wanting a quieter setting.

I don’t have the lens to get a super zoomed in shot and I wanted to do more watching of the event anyway. But I decided to attempt getting a couple pictures and you can see what I mean about the clouds! Though I actually think they make it look cooler. Actually, I didn’t take my eyes off the eclipse at all and just clicked the button. And that led to a couple…funky shots (I thought it was funny so I decided to add them, but [Lucky part #6:] I managed to get one clear shot of totality (last pic). Such an incredible day and I’m happy so many people got to witness one of nature’s most beautiful occurrences.

Norman, Oklahoma | October 14th 2023:

Solar eclipses are cool. National Weather Festivals are cool. But both...AT THE SAME TIME?! It was Christmas in October! Check out the 'community outreach' tab to get a taste of what the festival was like. Below, check out some pics of a ~75% eclipse coverage, which mainly consists of the beautiful crescents in the shadows. I'll be visiting friends that live near Dallas for the April 2024 one in attempts to experience totality for the second time (for once, please stay away, storms). You can scroll down this page to 2017 if you wanna check out my GoPro footage of the eclipse totality that happened back then!

Norman, Oklahoma | October 4th 2023:

Nothing like working in a cozy coffee shop while a 56 mph storm blows through. Featuring unfazed Oklahomans:

Norman, Oklahoma | September 23rd 2023:

Look at me, posting here every few days :o That’s how you know fall is right around the corner! And wow, is it coming in with a bang. To see what I quite literally mean, take a look at the lovely view of this supercell that occurred this past weekend that I captured along with many other Normanites. Nothing short of incredible.

Norman, Oklahoma | September 19th 2023:

Grabbed a couple of nice anvil crawlers before a hail-fueled storm came through! Luckily the hail threat decreased literally right as it came into the area, and I personally did not see or hear any though it was still reported in some parts.

Norman, Oklahoma | September 5th 2023:

I'll always be a Cali girl at heart, but nothing beats these post-storm Oklahoma sunsets.

Norman, Oklahoma | August 11th 2023:

Despite living in literal global warming this summer, here's a few pretty cloud and sunset pictures that I was able to capture over the last couple of months.

University of Oklahoma: Asp Garage, Norman, Oklahoma | June 15th & 17th 2023:

Y'know what, I'm not even going say anything. I'll just let what I think is my best storm photography to date do the talking. Honestly still in shock I captured the lightning shots I did:

Edit: Regarding the June 17th storm, the main hazard was winds up to 70 mph, and that forecast checked out quite well. The first two pictures are the storm drawing nearer, the second of which you can see a power flash in the distance. That was my cue to book it inside the building part of the garage. It lasted about 10 minutes and the Mesonet ended up recording a peak of 62 mph when all was said and done. I don't even know how to explain how strong the outflow was just from the howling outside, but here's more pictures of quite a bit of tree damage that night and the following day to get an idea. And the winds blew the loose tailight cover off my poor car Olive :((( (but I retrieved it)! P.S. one day I'll figure out how to do figure captions in an organized way to more easily explain the pictures. Until then, bear with me please :S

University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma | June 8th 2023:

We've had a lot of pop-up convection in the area the last couple of days leading to a couple of short-lived but hefty storms. I wasn't expecting to see some really nice mammatus on my evening walk around campus. It's been a goal of mine to get a mammatus shot of the clock-tower, so I'm super happy! Next goal is to get it with the orangish pink glow of the sunset.

All over Colorado and West Texas Panhandle | May 28th-June 1st 2023:

I went on a hiking trip with my mom in Colorado for a few days, and we ended up seeing some gorgeous storms fire up in the distance several. Below are some pictures of those; I can't get over how beautiful the towering cumulonimbus on the other side of the mountain was (this was around the Marsh Quarry near Cañon City). There actually ended up being a few small tornadoes to our east near Lamar, CO, so the environment was definitely more primed than initially forecasted. Overall, it was a great trip! The president passed by us when we were in Colorado Springs dropping our rental car back off..being escorted by several police cars, motorcycles, ambulances(?), and SWAT team vehicles. Traffic was stopped and we were very confused until we saw the news. Also, we brought a friendly abandoned/escaped dog we named Gus safely to the animal humane society in Cañon City.

Anyway. I had driven out to Colorado and I made a pitstop through Pueblo on the way back at the NWS office there, which was an awesome end to my Colorado adventures this time :D

Buuuut that doesn't mean the trip for me was over yet. Because as it turned out, there was a good chance of severe weather for the following day on the route through Lubbock, TX I was taking. The lack of low-level shear decreased the tornado chances, and the storms were not going to stay discrete long before becoming a squall line, but I decided to stay overnight and meander around the area before heading all the way back to Norman. And I'm so glad I did! Here's some pictures of what ended up being a very hail-filled storms, which showcased the beautiful white-ish green tint. In the first two pictures, I thought for sure I was seeing a tornado, but it was never reported so it was either a gustnado or outflow-driven dust (given that other pictures show obvious instances of outflow with way more dust kicked up, I think this one heirs on the side of a gustado). After a while, the storms became linear, and the initial plan was to stay ahead of the squall line, but I really wanted to see the mammatus on the back side of the storm. Well, I certainly did, and they rivaled the ones from last year when I saw my first tornado. So mesmorizing. The best part is FOR ONCE I HAD MY DSLR. But pictures honestly don't do it justice anyway. However, as you might've guessed, the decision to be on the backside of a slow-moving squall line made it take FOREVER to get home. But I'm still glad I did it and happily slept like a baby when I finally got back to Norman. All in all, this was an amazing vacation. Let's see what the last bit of spring brings!

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma | May 12th 2023:

More notable convection and later storms firing up in and around Oklahoma City following the active weather just yesterday. Couldn't catch the jaw-dropping mammatus yesterday, but I got some today! And in the other direction, some beautiful cumulonimbus exploding :D

Norman, Oklahoma | May 11th 2023:

Welp.......I unexpectedly saw a tornado today. Guess I'm officially an Oklahoman whether I like it or not :P

Many of us at the NWC have been monitoring this system for a few days and were debating about chasing if the conditions looked right. And when the SPC issued a 10% hatched TOR risk right smack-dab in the middle of Norman (pictured below), the mindset began shifting to concern for pets and housing. After the February EF2 tornado, and the wedge neaar Cole, OK a few weeks ago, Norman has had way too many scares this year to not ensure our severe weather plans were in place. Also, the low wind shear in the environment near the top of the storms meant high-precipitation (HP) supercells were more likely, and the chances of seeing tornadoes from these kind of stroms are slim-to-none anyway. So most of us remained in the Norman area, but I still decided to go to the OU Asp garage roof a couple hours before sunset when initiation time was set to try for structure and/or mammatus pictures. This, and the observation desk at NWC are great places to get pictures from high up while still having shelter nearby. After a while, there were a few storms west of my location, and I was getting a better view of them than expected. One of them to the southwest had some tight coupling on radar, and I could just barely make out a funnel from the exact area this was happening (second picture). It didn't touch down, but not only was I already getting adequate supercell pictures like I had hoped, but I even got a funnel picture. It receded quickly, but this was good enough for me.

However, after about another 20 minutes, one of the other storms I was watching (there were quite a few to pick from) developed into the classic hook echo shape and some lowering started happening. This wasn't like the funnel I saw previously, this was a big boi. I was watching a legit tornado form that was at least more than halfway to the ground. The radar image of this is the third picture, and the actual tornado was the fourth and fifth pictures below. This only lasted about 30 seconds before it diminished. Now, I didn't think it touched the ground, but it was listed as an "observed" tornado from Radarscope. I still had my doubts, but when I checked later, there was an official local storm report from the SPC on it. It could've been one of three brief tornadoes in and around Grady county, but I believe this tornado was south-southeast of Tuttle, OK. All this was from OU campus! Obviously these pictures are not high quality quality, but I saw way more than what I expected for an HP supercell prediction. I also got somewhat of a nice sunset shot of the supercell as it started falling apart (last pic), but it was time to head to shelter as some more tornado-warned storms to the southwest were headed straight for my area. Unfortunately, Cole, OK did get hit by another tornado from these storms and there was some structural damage. This is always saddening to me, and seeing the most beautiful, photogenic tornado in the entire world would not be worth it if it destroys someone else's life. I hope those impacted by these tornadoes are able to bounce back sooner than later.

Norman, Oklahoma | April 19th 2023:

We had a notable severe weather day in central Oklahoma, and models were looking pretty concerning for the Norman area. After the town got hit by an EF2 in February, no one was taking any chances with preparation. There was a meeting for all graduate students scheduled that night, so it was held in one of the NWC rooms that was below ground level.

The room is huge, which ended up being very useful for all the cute pets that needed shelter too! Thankfully, nothing hit Norman directly, but there were a couple of very close calls. These storms were veering off in unpredictable directions, and you can get a taste of that in the radar video below. What you're seeing there is a wedge tornado that unfortuntaly had just hit Cole, OK and claimed three lives. It's a double-sided sword to love studying these forces of nature, but never at the cost of someone else's life. This is also around the time three OU students tragically passed away last year after storm chasing. My thoughts are with anyone who has experienced tornado-related tragedies, be it through losing loved ones or losing homes. Though I study the boundary layer and not tornadoes directly, I hope what I'm doing does end up contributing to improving our knowledge of the atmosphere. Sure, it's fascinating, but it's also so very necessary. I'll end with pointing out one of the radar captures from the storm as the last picture. I've never seen that defined of a hook echo...that looks like a something straight out of a textbook. Stay safe, weather friends.

Norman, Oklahoma | April 10th 2023:

I've been going to one of the garage roofs at OU lately for some good sunset pictures (see post below!) and there was a nice cell to the north that produced beautiful lightning with the campus in the foreground. Here's just a few pictures of it!

Norman, Oklahoma | April 10th 2023:

It's been too long since there's been a sunset appreciation. The first one is my favorite, and one of the most beautiful I've ever seen! Many of these other ones are from the roof of University of Oklahoma's Asp garage:

Florence, Montana | September 23rd 2022:

I took a trip with my mom to the hot springs at Salmon-Challis National Forest. It was amazing, and I had a blast! But that was not the extent of the good times: the mountains in the area produced lenticular clouds, gravity waves, and many other beautiful cloud formations. I particularly never have seen lenticular clouds like this before. Here they are below!

Central Plains, U.S. (TORUS highlights) | May 31st - June 18th 2022:

I am currently apart of the 2022 TORUS campaign aimed at collecting data to better understand supercells in the Central U.S. I will go more into detail about my experience in the TORUS section in the fieldwork tab when the campaign wraps up. Edit: All the pics are now added to that TORUS tab!

Wayne, Oklahoma | May 4th 2022:

Yeah...you could say it was an active week! Here's a tornado-warned cell near Wayne, OK. I'm glad this one didn't produce a tornado since you can see the town right beneath where it would have been.

Oklahoma | May 2nd 2022:

Oh. My. Vorticity. What a DAY. After spending pretty much most my life being fascinated by these forces of nature, I have finally seen my first (and second) tornado! Both came from the same supercell near Loyal, OK, and it had indescribaly amazing structure. The first was a multi-vortex one at that. We were a little far visually, but I'm honestly a-okay with that, especially if it means missing the chaser traffic.

My friends and I drove north from OU at about 2:15 pm which was super late, but, hey, class has gotta come first. We saw the tornadoes, then headed back home to beat the line of storms coming towards Norman. There may have been a couple...let's just say "muddy" situations, but otherwise, it was an incredible day. I finally have my own tornado story, which is made even better by the fact that both were later classified as EFU due to lack of damage, which is always great news! We got back to OU only to come face-to-face with another tornado-warned storm, so we went to the parking garage roof to get a good view. Nothing screams "I live in the Plains" quite like that last sentence. We also had a nice visual of the shelf cloud from the line of storms just a head turn around. The tornado threat eventually went away and was replaced by hail concerns so we jumped back in the car and headed back in the garage. I believe some parts of Norman did get some hail but we managed to dodge it, so once the storms passed my friends said our goodbyes and that was the end of that expedition. Or was it..? Nope! The whole town was greeted by a beautiful mammatus sunset and anvil crawlers :D

The only sucky part was I forgot to pack my Canon and missed out on getting some pretty legendary shots of everything, but oh well. Beggars can't be choosers, right? I'm actually a bit late in uploading all this due to finals and because uploading pictures to this website is unfortunately a pain, but here they are, my best storm chase to date!

Norman, Oklahoma | April 1st 2022:

Lovely asperitas clouds along with virga today.

Near Lamont, Oklahoma | January 14th 2022:

These photos were taken right before an epic cold front came through that same night. Thanks to the shifting winds, there were interesting cloud formations during the day while the weather was stable, including some really nice gravity waves. But what made Arianna the most happy? Seeing and recording discrete Kelvin-Helmholtz waves for the very first time!!! They're small here, but beautiful, and I'm thankful to the bright cloud behind them for offering a nice contrast - might have missed them otherwise! There's a picture below in my December 2021 sunset compilation that may also be it (the one with the Norman water tower), but they might also be tiny mammatus. On this day, one of my project collaborators, Dr. Sonia Wharton, and I visited the Atmospheric Radiation Measurements (ARM) site in Lamont, Oklahoma and I was able to spontaneously launch one of their scheduled radiosondes when we walked by. You can see this in the last photo, and I'm glad I went with the skinny jeans and boots to wear because they make me look taller lol. All in all, an awesome day.

Norman, Oklahoma | January 2022:

Look at how pretty the snowflakes are!!! I always forget how small snowflakes actually are; despite a little blurriness my phone camera did a pretty good job picking them up. And then check out the video that night where the snow was light, but it got a lot breezier. A friend and I were driving through it, and the lights of passing cars illuminated the snows blowing across the streets - the rippling looks like an ocean! I'm sorry, I'm such a fan girl xD

Norman, Oklahoma | December 2021:

Welcome to my sunset compilation for 2021! I'm clearly addicted to taking pictures of sunsets (or objects in the path of said sunsets), so I figured it would be easier just to combine it as one post and avoid making this page unnecessarily long to scroll through :D

Norman, Oklahoma | December 2021:

Just a grown adult playing in some rather strong eddies. Nothing weird here. Note: I was told the 10 second mark is kind of a jumpscare, so sorry about that!

O'ahu, Hawaii | October 2021:

My mom and I took a wonderful vacation to the main island of Hawaii! It was as gorgeous as you'd imagine, and the pictures below show some of the scenic views we witnessed. They show mostly calm, serene conditions, but we did get rain on while we were snorkling! I had to add a picture of the The Weather Channel forecast because I found it hilarious.

Near Lubbock, Texas | April and May 2021:

Managed to squeeze in a couple of storm chases during the spring. Look at how breathtaking the mammatus were! This was the most memorable chase because we were able to see a funnel for a few seconds before it dissipated. This happened too quickly to get a picture of it, but we saw a wall cloud from far away too (second-to-last picture). Unfortuntaly, I missed the famous April 23rd day (I'M NOT BITTER), but I plan to be in Oklahoma a while, so I'm sure many more opportunities are on the horizon! Besides, what's most important is for there to be as few casualties from storms like these as possible :D Check out the video for a nice roll cloud from this day!

Norman, Oklahoma | January 2021:

We got snow to kickstart the new year! Almost 5 inches of fluffy cold goodness.

Lake Thunderbird, Oklahoma | November 2020:

If you couldn't tell from my previous picture, I'm very much a sunset gal. I found my happy place that I'll come to when I inevitably succumb to the pressures of grad school. A sunset on the lake can make anyone feel better.

Norman, Oklahoma | October 2020:

Yikes...we got a pretty cray cray ice storm that directly hit Norman, causing power outages almost everywhere. Here's some of the aftermath.

Stafford, Virginia | Spring, 2020

Both these picture were taken at different times during the spring. The first is probably the pinkest sunset I've ever seen, and the second is from a passing storm...which looks like it produced tornado-shaped lightning. I hereby dub this phenonema the Jordan lightnado!

Norman, Oklahoma | Summer, 2019

Finally back in Oklahoma where I got to study at the National Severe Storms Lab, and gain hands-on experience for my master's thesis. In addition, Oklahoma is the only place to date I've ever seen a mammatus sunset! (And to think they get even more structured than this).

Rocky Mountains, Colorado | August, 2018

Possibly one of my favorite pictures I've ever taken is this first shot of the Milky Way when I visited Rocky Mountain National Park! I used my Canon 6D and a really long exposure time capture it - I can't remember the settings off the top of my head, but I will update when I find out!

Utah | August, 2018

So this was taken near the beginning of my roadtrip from California to the Washington D.C./Virginia area for grad school (yup, I drove). There were wildfires in the nearby region, which luckily I was able to avoid. It's unfortunate how common they are in this part of the U.S., but the one good thing that came from them was this sunset, which was super red due to the smoke particles in the atmosphere.

Monterey, California | July, 2018

My last California sunset before heading to the East Coast for a master's degree!

Iceland | January 2nd-9th, 2018:

I studied abroad in Iceland during the winter of my senior year in undergrad. Here's all the great weather/scenic moments I captured while there.

San Luis Obispo, California | October 29th, 2017:

Waking up to some fog in the mountains during a much needed camping trip in Cali.

Newport, Oregon | August 23rd, 2017:

This is a timelapse taken by my GoPro of 2017's solar eclipse. It was incredible, and the video doesn't do it justice, but it does capture how quickly clouds formed with dropping temperatures over the pan of just a few minutes. See more about my role in the research done for this event in the Research and Class Projects tab!

Washington, D.C. | July, 2017

Why ON EARTH did I not just walk all the way to the middle of the walkway...it's just barely not the ideal Capitol picture! Oh weeeeell, I'm still quite proud of this rainbow shot as were others in the area :D

Various locations | July, 2017:

My second time storm chasing around some tornado-warned storms (again with Dr. Bill McCaul). No tornadoes again, but still was lucky enough to get some amazing shots shown below.

Huntsville, Alabama | August 2017:

As it turns out, Huntsville had a lot of really beautiful sunsets while I was there. So here's a compilation of the many I took pictures of while I was there. If you look closely, you can even see some virga on the last one!

Pontotoc, Mississippi | June 22nd, 2017:

First time storm chasing! During the time of my NASA internship I went with Dr. Bill McCaul to Mississippi in the hope of chasing weak tornadoes from Tropical Cindy's remnants. Nothing fully developed, but I was very happy to capture this distinct funnel that spun for about 10 minutes!