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I love a nice shelf cloud, and I’ve missed a few of them this season. Florida always has more, though, and I caught one this afternoon as a pretty line of storms rolled through Brevard County.

Storms set up in a line moving northeast across Brevard County, Florida, today. An outflow boundary was evident on radar, resulting in an undulating shelf cloud of varying drama. I stayed ahead of the line from Rockledge to Port Canaveral, snapping photos along the way.

Roll over a photo to see its caption, and click on any of the pictures to start a slide show of larger images.

A shelf cloud in Nebraska. Photo by Chris Kridler, ChrisKridler.com

I chased today with Greg Stephens, Dayna Vettese and Brad Rousseau, eventually meeting up with Dave Lewison and Scott McPartland in Valentine, Nebraska, in the vicinity of our initial target.

Storms fired and were more pretty than violent, especially against the backdrop of north-central Nebraska’s rolling hills. A shelf cloud developed, and down the road from the group, I watched it march across the plains.

Florida has afforded a fair number of photo opportunities since I’ve been back from what I consider my real storm-chasing trip, the one to Tornado Alley.

I shouldn’t be a storm snob, but the Plains storms have such power and magnificence, it’s hard for Florida’s summer thunderstorms to compete. Still, Florida is king of the shelf clouds, and it’s tops nationally in lightning (though not always at night, when I prefer to shoot it).

 

Wednesday, June 13, I caught a very pretty shelf cloud in Brevard County, Florida, as it came over the Indian River Lagoon. One result was the panorama above; the other is the video, which includes time-lapsed footage.

Roll over a photo to see a caption, or click on any image to start a slide show.