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Zach Blazek

@zachblazek

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🌌🎿🌪🌲☀️🏃‍♂️🌎🌃🏒🌌
I like skiing and storm chasing with my friends

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Fun fact: A supercell can harness as much energy as multiple nuclear bombs, but instead of releasing that energy all at once instantaneously, it spreads the energy across hundreds of miles over several hours.

Such was the case with this explosive tornadic supercell over Fleming, CO this summer.

#cowx #tornado #supercell #weather #stormchasing

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🌩️ Views like these make the miles worth it. A rotating wall cloud with tentacles of rising scud churns over the Canadian prairie 🇨🇦 as a supercell attempts tornadogenesis.

#stormchasing #wx #nature #tornado #storm

⛈️ A wide lens reveals the storm’s full base. Rain and golfball-sized hail fall on the right, while the storm’s rear flank downdraft clears the sky for a couple of photogenic sunbeams to the left.

#wx #supercell #hail #tornado #mbstorm

⚡️This storm would grow upscale within the hour and formed into a large squall line by sunset, boasting a gnarly lightning show that would last well into the evening. None of this video is sped up.

#lightning #nature #thunder #stormchaser #weather

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Like so many storms this year, this tornado-warned cell over Jourdanton, TX didn’t quite pull off a tornado, but offered plenty of spicy visuals and rotation.

🌩️A supercell cycles for hours over open fields, forming a new base every 15-20 minutes.

🌀Rapidly rising scud spins over Route 97, likely the closest this storm came to producing once we were on it.

🌩️Even still, this cell produced beefy wall clouds over, and over, and over again.

🐂… the locals were not impressed.

#storm #tornado #txwx #stormchasing #nature

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Timelapse Tuesday: This Tornado-warned supercell near 📍Denver International Airport nearly produced a tornado.

🌪️Watch the cell tighten to produce a persistent rotating wall cloud and funnel with rising scud before momentarily falling apart — and then doing it all over again in a new cycle.

🌀By the time the cell reorganizes near the end of the video, two pronounced areas of rotation appear on either side of the clear slot (clear air carved by the rear flank downdraft wrapping around the storm’s mesocyclone). Rotation closer to the camera spins anti-cyclonically, while the wall cloud further back, where tornadogenesis is far more likely, spins cyclonically.

Notice at the end of the video, rotation slides into the backside of the storm as the mesocyclone occludes and eventually dies.

What other features can you spot?

#supercell #stormchasing #cowx #tornado #wx

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Every supercell I’ve photographed has felt omnipotent— but a few have felt downright evil. Such was the case with this high-precipitation monster in NE Colorado a few weeks ago that, after merging with another cell, brought 80+ mph straight-line winds, baseball-sized hail, and an “everything-wrapped” tornado threat.

⛈️A rogue funnel pokes its head out of a churning supercell. Despite appearances, any real tornadic action likely occurred well behind this feature, shrouded in a wall of rain and large hail.

⛈️ An ominous shelf cloud forms over 📍Akron, CO

⛈️A train of dust and dirt gets drawn into the inflow of the storm as it re-intensifies. With no clear view of the updraft and light beginning to fade, this was our sign to head home.

📡 Radar-indicated wind gusts affirmed our decision.

🌩️Sometimes the best views can only be fully appreciated at a distance…

🌅 …especially when they include a sunset like this one.

#cowx #stormphotography #supercell #tornado #wx

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Timelapse Tuesday: Oh Canada 😍 A supercell momentarily shows off rising, rotating scud clouds as it churns across📍 Cromer, Manitoba

#stormchasing #nature #weather #tornado #storm

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Truly the strongest, dustiest inflow I’ve ever felt. I’m usually pretty comfortable around supercells, but even knowing we had a paved escape route didn’t stop me from sweating a bit here. ⛈️🎷🎶

#weather #cowx #thunderstorm #tornado #stormchasing

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This supercell over 📍Carlyle, Saskatchewan undoubtedly produced the best structure of the year so far.

Everything you’ve heard about Canadian hospitality is true - nicest people on the planet. More pics to come. #skstorm #wx #stormchasing #weather #tornado

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It’s been an unusual start to the season for the high plains. Hitting the road in a few days, let’s see what Mother Nature gives us…

⛈️This supercell forming over 📍Winona, KS would go on to merge with several other cells before producing a severe-warned haboob (dust storm).

🌩️The view from the soup of a western Kansas dust storm.

🌩️With sustained winds of 55 mph and reports of gusts exceeding 80 mph, the storm temporarily shut down parts of I-70 (🎥 @zachblazek )

🌩️Mesocyclone forms over 📍Goodland, KS minutes before going tornado warned.

🌀 Cinnamon Bun (yum) rotation under the 📍Goodland, KS mesocyclone.

⛈️A supercell develops over 📍Limon, CO.

🧊Golf ball-sized hail recovered from a squall line in 📍Hays, KS.

🧊Lots and lots of hail across western Kansas.

🌀A surface-based supercell shows off swirling, rising scud minutes before planting a brief tornado near 📍Roff, OK.

#stormchasing #wx #cowx #tornado #weather

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It’s good to be back.

⚡️Cloud-to-cloud lightning show under a cycling storm in 📍Goodland, KS. This developing mesocyclone would end up dropping a brief tornado just minutes later.

#cowx #tornado #kswx #storm #weather

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4th at Desert Rats 21k! Off to a good start

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Maybe the real snowpack was the friends we made along the way…

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