Storm Chasing - Images Per Year

Believe it or not but N. Ireland gets its fair share of severe weather from violent thunderstorms to near hurricane force gales and tornadoes mixed with hail/snow blizzards and even the odd hot Summer which will come as a surprise to many of the people living here. Severe weather is an area which I am taking an extreme interest in so I have decided to open a new section within nightskyhunter.com to share with you my reports of these interesting events when they happen. I intend to feature T-storms, severe wind storms, tornadoes, funnel clouds and interesting convective events and even unusual cloud formations. I will also include atmospheric optics and even non weather related photography. I hope you enjoy them. Click on the year of interest to see all the reports.

2013 REPORTS This could be an exceptional year of sky action and it has already begun...

2012 REPORTS 2012 was a roller coaster ride with several tornadoes and many funnel clouds. The storm season began early with impressive storms and funnels near coastal regions then the activity moved inland during Spring and Summer making for an action-packed season. Highlights for me where several funnels and one possible tornado in Antrim and the amazing multicell storms during the same period. The year also includes coastal shoots, moonlit storm cells, Venus & Jupiter conjunction, Portrush Airshow, moon halos and stunning aurora displays from the north coast including the Giant's Causeway and Mussenden Temple and climaxing with a two night aurora hunt with the BBC's 'The One Show'. 19 reports here featuring the best images of the year.

2011 REPORTS 2011 was an action-packed year with the greatest amount of storm rotation I have ever seen in my life in conjunction with the largest amount of storm chasing I have done to date. This page features 16 chase reports covering a wide range of subject matter including geomagnetic storms, huge snow flakes, the biggest gorse fire outbreak in living memory, severe multicell thunderstorms, funnel clouds, NLCs over Dunluce Castle, fireworks over Lough Neagh, the finest moonbows I have ever seen, numerous day and night coastal chases and ending with winter squalls and fierce Atlantic storms. This year brought me that one step closer to catching my dream shot of a tornado over N. Ireland. I hope you enjoy reading these reports as much as I enjoyed living them.

2010 REPORTS This was my most action packed year to date. Despite being rather low in thunderstorms I managed to do my most intense storm chasing and countless photography shoots. This section features two extreme Winters, an epic Glenshane Pass blizzard, thunderstorms, thundersnow, funnel clouds and an adrenaline inducing multi vortex event which came close to a touch down. Also a great mammatus display, coastal night storms, Noctilucent Clouds, the Zodiacal Light, several mesocyclones, frozen rivers and Loughs. 17 image reports on here.

2009 REPORTS The 2009 thunderstorm season was one of my finest years to date with high instability during the Spring and Summer months producing huge multicell storms, two possible supercells, the best shelf cloud I have seen, 7 funnel clouds, and a frightening severe squall line with produced damaging winds which sounded like an approaching tornado complete with night time lightning. Combined with the best Noctilucent Cloud displays I have ever seen I would place 2009 as the benchmark in standard for future years!. 15 image reports.

2008 REPORTS 2008 was a busy year for convective weather events and rare atmospheric optical phenomena. On here is a wide range of subject matter, some of it non-weather related which sums up the best events of the year from my area of N. Ireland. Thunderstorms, funnel clouds, rare Moonbows, floods, Noctilucent clouds, severe winds, and even astronomical events which include a partial solar eclipse and an attractive planet conjunction to end the year - 16 reports.

2007 REPORTS My favourite storm year to date and the very year which got me hooked on storms and weather photography. Includes 5 full reports. This section includes several thunderstorms, crisp convection, mammatus displays and a direct link to the 2007 Noctilucent Cloud Gallery. The main highlights were 5 funnel clouds, including one which came close to touching down as a tornado which warranted a site investigation by TORRO.

2006 REPORTS Three sets of reports containing 121 images showing my first attempts at convective photography covering a selection of events during 2006. Includes mammatus clouds and a direct link to the 2006 Noctilucent Cloud gallery. The most spectacular convective events during this period were the December 1st and September 18th Mammatus displays.