You have probably wonder, why the f..k @marjanko didn't post anything yesterday. As you already know, I started storm chasing few weeks ago.
Here is the story that change my life.
Let me take you 2 days back. It was a Thursday ( 21.06.2018 ) and we got a forecast for potential super cell. It was 3:00 p.m. I called my friend Clemens ( long time storm hunter ), if the forecast is real. He looked up the satellite pictures and he said "we have potential for a huge storm ", so we must prepare our gear and wait for the storm to build itself.
Most of the time, the huge storms are created in the mountains. They are gaining power while lowering into the low area ( Steiermark ).
My first supercell
5:00 p.m. still waiting.
5:30 p.m. still nothing.
6:00 p.m. getting nervous.
6:30 p.m. looking good, but we still don't know what is going to happen. 6:45 p.m. It has began. The storm is coming down to the mountains, gaining huge straight. We must carefully follow the satellite radar, to see in which way the storm is headed.
7:00 p.m. I received the call from Clemens he was very excited, because the storm was coming into our direction. In 5 min, I was packed and ready for my second storm chase. He send me his location and I started driving. I saw the sky and it was black. The temperature was 30 degreese. Damn it was hot.
On the way
I was still driving to the direction that Clemens gave me, but then he called I should turn the other way, because the storm is already there. We need to find other place to meet. He send me another location and told me I should be quick because the storm was realy fast. I put "my metal to the pedal". On the way, I saw huge clouds coming together. I didn't see the super cell yet, but I've seen the potencial. For experienced storm hunter this was a normal storm. Nothing special. For me, huge monster!
I was looking at the GPS and I was 5 min away from the location. Outside the temperature drops about 5 degrees and it slowly started to rain.
7:45 p.m. When I arrived to the location, rain stops and before me is the supercell. I saw the Clemens already unpacked and taking photos.
We didn't expect what will happen
It was majestical. I parked my car on the field way and jumped out to take photos. I put my GoPro for a timelapse and the other camera to take raw. photographs.
A few moments later
After 3 min of taking photos of the supercell. Booooooooom. Lightning strike. I had the honor and horror, to see the lightning strike about 15 meters (50 feet) away from us.
I froze.WTF just happend.
WTF
In a blink of a eye. Really? You can't imagine how loud it was. I was shocked. I looked at Clemens and in a second we were in his car. Thankfuly we were alived. How the fuck did this happen. The storm was 5 km away from us. We quickly look at the radar and what we didn't see, another storm was building just above us.
Reality check.
We decided to get away from the storm. On the way Clemens started feeling pain in his muscles and hard time to breathe. Luckily there was the hospital nearby.
To make a long story shot, we got away with a big ass warning and we are both ok. Because, Clemens was near the lightning strike he experienced headache, muscle spasms, chest pain. Stills some muscles spasms, but he is ok. Luckily. You can read about his experience: https://www.kleinezeitung.at/steiermark/chronik/5452024/Bei-Unwetter_Blitz-schlug-neben-Gewitterjaeger-ein_Er-musste-ins
WARNING
Lesson learned. Always check your weather radar!
Will I continue storm hunting?
I gained a huge amount of respect for this storms that, I had before. I will be extra careful, because this was first warning.
I don't think there will be a second one!? What do you think?
Cam: Iphone, Sony a6000, Gopro (videos soon)
Lens: Sony 16-50mm
My first real storm hunt / supercell:
https://steemit.com/weatherphotography/@marjanko/weather-photography-the-hunt-series-supercell-in-austria-graz-12-6-2018-what-is-going-on-with-nature
All your support, will go for buying a new lens for weather photography, so I could bring you better photos and videos.
🍀Enjoy❤️Upvote❤️Resteem🍀