Lightning, Tornadoes, Storm Chasing, Extreme Weather & St. Louis Storms by Dan Robinson

Editor/Photographer

Thanks for visiting! I'm a year-round storm chaser & weather photographer covering St. Louis, the Midwest, the Great Plains and beyond. I've spent weeks on the road annually for the last 33 years, logging 412,274 miles covering all types of extreme weather. My goal is to capture nature's dramatic side, and in doing so, provide visitors to this site with educational information and exciting photography/video about severe storms and extreme weather. I specialize in capturing imagery and video of tornadoes, lightning, St. Louis, MO and the Gateway Arch, storms and all types of extreme weather. I also sell fine art prints of my work via my photo gallery.

Dan's DMCA and Copyright FAQ: A million-dollar loss.

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. This page is a detailed account of the biggest threat to my photography and video operation that I had to battle daily to just barely survive, and eventually could not overcome. It's a problem facing all of my colleagues as well.

View 2025 Storm Catches >

2025 Great Plains Chasing >

St. Louis Storms & Weather >

This site will turn 30 years old this October! Read about how this site has grown and changed over the last 3 decades.

Latest Notable Storm Chases

Grinnell, Kansas tornado - May 18, 2025
GRINNELL, KS - Strong tornado impacts northwestern Kansas town.

Marion, Illinois tornado - May 16, 2025
MARION, IL - Early stages of an EF4 tornado in southern Illinois.

Huge nighttime tornado - April 27, 2025
MULLEN, NE - Nighttime wedge tornado in the Nebraska Sandhills.

Close lightning barrage - April 4, 2025
DELTA, MO - Supercell lightning barrage near Cape Girardeau.

St. Louis metro tornadoes - March 14, 2025
ST. LOUIS - Tornadoes in the St. Louis metro area, one very close to home.

OKC Metro Icy Bridges - February 12, 2025
BLANCHARD, OK - Icy bridges in the Oklahoma City metro.

Icy Roads in Florida - January 22, 2025
PENSACOLA, FL - Historic winter storm brings icy roads to Florida.

Icy Bridge Chaos - January 4, 2025
WICHITA, KS - Icy bridges in south central Kansas during a major winter storm.

Sprites - October 24, 2024
WORDEN, IL - Sprites from storms in northeastern Missouri.

Comet C/2023 A3 - October 16, 2024
ST. LOUIS - Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) over the Gateway Arch.

Downtown Chicago Tornado - July 15, 2024
CHICAGO - EF1 tornado in downtown Chicago.

Skyscraper Lightning - July 14, 2024
CHICAGO - Upward lightning striking skyscrapers.

Mount Vernon, Indiana Tornado - July 9, 2024
MOUNT VERNON, IN - Strong tornadoes in southwestern Indiana.

Windthorst, Texas Tornado - May 25, 2024
WINDTHORST, TX - Strong tornado south of Wichita Falls, Texas.

Iowa Tornado Outbreak - May 21, 2024
RED OAK, IA - Multiple strong tornadoes in southwestern Iowa.

Aurora over the Arch - May 10, 2024
ST. LOUIS - Bright aurora borealis visible over the Gateway Arch.

Nighttime EF4 Tornado - May 6, 2024
BARNSDALL, OK - Violent tornado after dark in northeastern Oklahoma.

Oklahoma City upward lightning - April 27, 2024
OKLAHOMA CITY - Dozens of upward lightning strikes to OKC towers.

Close tornadoes in NE and IA - April 26, 2024
GREAT PLAINS - Numerous significant tornadoes in Nebraska and Iowa.

Close lightning at 6,000fps - April 18, 2024
ST. LOUIS - High-speed camera shot of a close lightning strike.

View All Storm Catches >

30 Years of Storm Chasing & Photography: 1993-2023

Dan's Latest Blog Post

May-June 2025 Storm Chasing Recap

The peak of spring severe weather season this year was a challenging one, with several big misses and no "catch of the year" to speak of. Despite that, several tornado intercepts and high-speed lightning captures made it a productive 2 months.

Quick Links to Popular Pages

Aurora Borealis over the Arch - Rare Northern Lights visible in downtown St. Louis.

Tornado Outbreak of April 26, 2024 - Multiple close tornado intercepts in Nebraska and Iowa.

2024 Total Solar Eclipse - The total solar eclipse of April 8, 2024 viewed from New Hampshire.

Slow motion Chicago skyscraper lightning - 1500FPS slow motion video of the August 10 derecho producing an upward lightning show to the city's tallest buildings.

3 Gateway Arch lightning strikes in an hour - A thunderstorm of rare lightning frequency and intensity affects downtown St. Louis and the rest of the metro area.

December Illinois tornado outbreak - A tornado outbreak affects central Illinois on December 1, 2018.

Hurricane Michael intercept - Experiencing Category 5 Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Florida.

Incredible tornadoes at Dodge City, Kansas - Storm of a lifetime on May 24, 2016 with multiple highly photogenic tornadoes in southwestern Kansas.

90-Minute violent EF4 tornado in Kansas - Up close and personal with a long-lived significant tornado through Bennington, Solomon and Abilene, Kansas.

Chicago Triple Lightning Strike to Skyscrapers

Chicago Triple Skyscraper Lightning Strike - Lightning strikes all three of Chicago's tallest buildings at the same time - Sears (Willis) Tower, Trump Tower and John Hancock Center!

San Andreas Fault Tour - A photo tour covering the major-earthquake-primed segment of the fault in southern California.

The Greensburg, Kansas EF5 tornado - Chasing the nighttime EF5 wedge tornado that devastated the town of Greensburg, Kansas.

The El Reno, OK tornado of May 31, 2013 - A detailed account of the EF-5 El Reno, Oklahoma tornado of May 31, 2013, including video, images and other data.

Winter lightning and thundersnow - All about lightning and severe storms in the winter, even during snow!

Dan's Extreme Weather Photo Galleries >

Tornado Photo Gallery

Lightning Photo Gallery

St. Louis Photo Gallery

Storm Chasing Logs >

I have all of my weather imagery, video and and accounts organized by year and by category in my weather logs section. You can also browse images in the photo gallery section and videos in the stock footage section of the site. My video collection can also be viewed on the Youtube channel.

Dan's Extreme Weather Educational Library >

The longest-running section of this site is the Extreme Weather Educational Library section, containing numerous articles about lightning, storms, severe weather and related phenomena.