In September of 2025, my work is generating the most income it ever has in my career. Yet, I'm being forced to shut down my successul operation, against my will, due to one cause alone: 95% of that revenue is being stolen by piracy and copyright infringement. I've lost more than $1 million to copyright infringement in the last 15 years, and it's finally brought an end to my professional storm chasing operation. Do not be misled by the lies of infringers, anti-copyright activists and organized piracy cartels. This page is a detailed, evidenced account of my battle I had to undertake to just barely stay in business, and eventually could not overcome. It's a problem faced by all of my colleagues and most other creators in the field.
I had low expectations for this day thanks to the non-existent surface flow, but it otherwise looked like a solid supercell day with the very cold midlevel temps moving overhead. I started with a developing supercell storm just south of I-64 in the STL metro, but this was quickly squashed by a large area of precip breaking out ahead of it.
By now a potent supercell had been ongoing for some time over in Missouri, but essentially out of play in bad terrain and roads southwest of STL. I dropped south to Chester to await the storm crossing into better chase territory in Illinois. When it moved into view, the updraft structure was half decent with periodic RFD clear slots cutting in on the right side and some very low and ominous-looking wall clouds. Rotation on radar was rather weak at this time, however.
Supercell near Chester
Wall cloud and clear slot
I broke off of this storm to get back to STL before a secondary line of storms moved through. These beat me there by about 20 minutes, with some decent lightning on the front side.
This Youtube video includes a lightning shot from this day at 1,500 frames per second:
Web Site Design and Internet Marketing by CIS Internet
From Dan: Please Read
To my regular readers, I offer my apologies for this heavy-handed notice. Unfortunately it has become necessary, so please bear with me!
Please don't copy/upload this site's content to social media or other web sites. Those copies have been a critical problem for me, seriously harming this site and my photography/storm chasing operation by diverting traffic, viewers, engagement and income. "Credit" and "exposure" does not benefit this site or my operation, rather they threaten my ability to cover my operating expenses. Please read my full explanation for this notice here.
Before continuing, check each box to agree to and acknowledge these two statements:
Click this button to finalize this acknowledgement:
