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June 2008 review and stats: a month for the books
June 2008 Stats
- Storm days: 19
- Individual chases: 23
- Total storm-related digital photo files: 1,650 (RAW only)
- Total "keeper" images: Roughly 60
- Mileage: Roughly 750
- Shortest chase: 0 miles
- Longest chase: 200 miles (Bland, VA and return)
I don't normally keep any kind of stats log, but this month was so unusual that I couldn't help but keep track of some numbers. In terms of quality/number of storms and still imagery, by far no month has been as successful in my photography career as June of 2008. I logged 23 individual chases, more than any single spring-summer season in my years past (not counting the Great Plains trips). The 'keeper image'-to-chase ratio for the past month was my highest ever, averaging around 3 good images obtained per outing. Out of June's 30 days, 19 of those were storm days (18 of which were within West Virginia). Only 11 days in the month did I go without storms. The month even started and ended with storm days on June 1 and today, the 30th - with this anvil crawler over the Capitol this afternoon:
Click to enlarge
Most remarkably though, this was almost entirely within the state of West Virginia - only two chases took me out-of-state, another two during family visits. My total mileage was roughly 750 (using an average of 20-40 miles per chase, some were longer, most were shorter), reflecting the fact that the vast majority of my storms ended up being in Kanawha and Putnam counties - less than 15 minutes from my house. More than 50% of that mileage was from only three chases - the 200-mile trip to Bland, VA on June 16, the 100-mile Ravenswood chase on June 4, and a chase to Proctorville, Ohio on June 10. I logged several zero-mile and sub-100 yard "chases" on foot, taking advantage of the nice views afforded by my living room and the mountaintop cemetery behind my house.
The numbers are interesting to look at, but nothing else shows what I've been blessed to see this month better than the photos. To wrap this review up, here are some thumbnails captured during June of 2008 (these are all stills, not including video captures). Here's hoping that July and the rest of summer will be this good, or even better!
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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