Visually stunning, mini documentary of the best tornado footage, lightning strikes, supercells and most beautiful storms Ive documented. Not only is Mother Nature’s fury amplified with these explosive storms, So is her beauty.

For licensing contact hankschyma@gmail.com

SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL
www.patreon.com/pecoshank

MAKING OF THIS VIDEO:
I have devoted a large portion of my life to documenting thunderstorms from South Texas to North Dakota, and from California to Florida. The storms notorious in Tornado Alley can be terribly powerful, however the side Im most interested in is her beauty. This is a collection of my all time most beautiful and greatest moments storm chasing. I have strived to capture steady shots in the worst conditions possible with no shaking, or windshield wipers. Though Ive had many great encounters in my portfolio over the last 25 years, this video is mostly the last decade simply due to the increase in camera quality. Many great 1080p HD captures were left out to make room for the 4K storm footage. I hope you enjoy :D

STORM INFORMATION:
Roughly 75% of the ENTIRE planet’s tornadoes are reported in the United States. Here, unique geography is ultimately responsible for the high frequency of extremely powerful storm cells. Though tornadoes most often make the headlines, all this excessive energy in the atmosphere can result in an freak show of other wonders.
Many of the phenomena we are familiar with and others we are still just discovering. Not only is Mother Nature’s fury amplified with these explosive storms, So is her beauty.

Storm updrafts most frequently erupt near late afternoon when daytime temperatures reach their highest.

RAINBOW INFORMATION
Rainbows are caused by the reflection, refraction and dispersion of sunlight in rain droplets. The secondary rainbow is visible when the light that is reflected twice inside raindrops is bright enough for detection. And Because this light is reflected twice, the order of the secondary rainbow’s colors are reversed.

WHY STORMS TURN GREEN:
The concentrated downdraft of heaviest rain and hail is the core
This icy waterfall often has a turquoise hue.
In the evening or morning when golden hour sun light mixes in, the storm can turn an eerie green.

SUPERCELL INFORMATION:
In a wind sheared environment cell updrafts may rotate, becoming a mesocyclone. Mesocyclone’s are the defining character of the rarest and most powerful breed of thunderstorms, the supercell. And it’s these supercells that are responsible for the majority of the worlds strong tornadoes. Thankfully, most of these tornadoes occur over sparsely populated areas causing little damage if any.

LIGHTNING INFORMATION:
Thunderstorms have the ability to create electric fields by separating pools of positive and negative charges. When oppositely charged regions become strong enough, a flash of lightning temporarily equalizes the difference. Most flashes occur within the storm, but roughly 1 in 5 initiate by a downward moving stepped leader that connects to the ground. This is a cloud-to-ground flash. The more powerful the thunderstorm, the less time needed for the regions to rebuild their energetic charges.

UPWARD MOVING LIGHTNING or Ground-to-cloud lightning:
On rare occasions lightning initiates from tall objects on the ground and propagates upward into the storm. During extraordinary events, two or three GROUND-TO-CLOUD flashes occur And during extremely rare conditions over a dozen bolts of lightning can leap up into the sky.

Near the ceiling of our troposphere, pouch like mammatus clouds hank underneath the storms anvil cloud. High above the anvil cloudds, mysterious large scale discharges burst into color. Scientists call these Transient Luminous Events (TLEs).

Music Score by: Dan Workman, Christine Wu