| Travel Image Gallery |
Severe Weather Gallery
| Severe Weather & Travel Photography By Martin Kucera |
| Tornado Alley 2005 |
| Florida Lightning, Waterspout, Hurricane, Large Hail & Tornado Photography Adventure Travel Notes From Around The World |
| Supercell thunderstorm in Kansas during sunset. |
| June 10th, 2006 - Incredible supercell in northwest Colorado. Notice the intense hail shaft. |
| Martin Kucera filming a half mile wide tornado near Jayton, TX on June 12th, 2006 |
| Click above for Hurricane Wilma sample video. Wilma greatly affected south Florida and Florida Keys. For chase account click on the following link http://www.martinkucera.com/Hurricane_Wilma.html |
| Late summer of 2005 - a perfect thunderstorm over Florida Bay. This almost stationary storm provided plenty of lightning flashes and photo opportunities. |
| June 12th, 2005 - Texas Panhandle supercell that produced multiple tornadoes including a very photogenic wedge shortly after this shot was taken |
June 4th, 2005 - Elusive tornado near Hiawatha, KS
| June 12th 2005 - Kent County, TX rotating mesocyclone about to produce multiple tornadoes |
| A translucent smoke cylinder of a forming waterspout near Key West (Summer of 2005) just seconds before the picture was taken this then weak tornado ran directly over my car. This is one of the early stages in waterspout development. Later you were able to look up and see the funnel extend all the way to the parent cloud directly overhead. Notice the boat in a close proximity the to waterspout. Image from video. |
| Waterspout near Long Key, FL - summer of 2005 |
| August 15th - A lone sunset thunderstorm over Florida Bay. |
| It has been almost a year since the amazing lightning event that happened on April 10th, 2006 here in the Florida Keys. I have never seen lightningas intense as I have on that memorable day... Click on the photo above to watch a short video clip of one of many positive lightning discharges from that night. |
| Greensburg, KS - EF5 Wedge Tornado May 4th, 2007 - 9:50:40pm |
| April 24th, 2007 - Central Kansas stormy afternoon. |
| April 23rd, 2007 - Protection, KS Tornado |
| May 5th, 2007 - A wall cloud forms just minutes before producing a large cone tornado in Kansas. |
| LP Supercell in Nebraska on June 10th, 2007 |
All Images & Text (c) 2008 FloridaLightning.com |
| Positively charged lightning strike over the Atlantic ocean. Islamorada, FL - Sept28, 2008 |
| Large Florida Keys waterspout just north of Marathon, FL on August 25th, 2007 |
| Florida Lightning .com |
| February 18th - Another Florida wet season is only a few months away and my preparations for the most intense season yet are well under way. Have been working almost daily on my waterspout intercept boat. Hoping to have everything ready to go by Spring break time which is just around the corner. Amazing new plans in the works when it comes to waterspout chasing this upcoming Summer season. In a month or so, the Alley will most likely become a bit more active so I hope to be able to make several good expeditions to film awesome thunderstorms. Here in the Keys we had a line of severe storms last week pass through. Couple of small but intense supercells moved near by complete with amazing radar signatures. That has been just about it for now. Can't seem to get much decent moisture down here these days... but what can you expect in February. Although it should be the most active month for severe weather and tornadoes in Florida. It has also been quite cold with temps reaching as low as 41F on one particular night here in the upper Keys. |
| Space Shuttle Discovery STS-119 Launch - northern horizon as seen from Florida Keys on evening of March 15th, 2009. Space Shuttle Discovery was clearly visible - 226 miles away - launching into the evening sky just moments earlier, leaving only this glowing plume of exhaust gases behind. |
| March 18th - Quite an active day for March here in the Keys. Numerous waterspouts were observed today along the Keys island chain. This was the first significant waterspout day of 2009 and I managed to film a long lived large funnel cloud that formed over the US 1 highway near MM 72. The cloud base rotated clearly in view directly overhead. Eventually the entire waterspout became visible, complete with a nice, distinct spray ring. The waterspout dissipated in heavy rain about 20 minutes later after showing some violent motions. |
| March 21st - Today was the third day in a row that waterspouts were reported along the Florida Keys island chain. I caught a nice waterspout over Florida Bay just north of Islamorada, FL (photo above). It was getting chased by a very healthy rain curtain for a while until the waterspout dissipated. The top photo shows view of Florida Bay from my workplace about half an hour before the waterspout occurred. |
| Lightning intensive thunderstorms on April 14th as seen over the warm waters of Gulf stream which usually sparks the lightning activity further. This was the first great and long lasting lightning display of this year. Something about second week in April, we always get a lightning intensive thunderstorm episode during this time. In fact as I have said elsewhere - the best lightning night I have ever experienced here in the Keys occurred around April 9th and 10th of 2006. Notice the fishing rod sitting on the rocks in the foreground... |
| The past week or so has been nothing but much welcomed rainy weather for most of south Florida and Florida Keys. I've been on a lookout for waterspout activity but it simply did not happen with this area of low pressure passing by. The system did not disappoint with it's daily show of strong to severe storms over southern Florida peninsula. One night in particular brought a round of rather strong storms here in the upper Keys and I was on a lookout for positively charged lightning discharges that night. Full account on here soon... -------------------------------------------------- Also, The Waterspout Research Project of 2009 starts in just about a week ! More details here as the expedition evolves into it's early stages... |
| Florida Keys Waterspout Outbreak - May 29th - Early this morning I filmed two mature waterspouts and observed three more smaller ones associated with a robust cloud line near upper Keys. More details and a full chase account soon... |
| June 2009 - Waterspout Research Project - intercepted numerous waterspouts during the first week of June. So far, the second week has been a bit slower with moisture and instability near the Keys lacking... |
| June 14th - Waterspout Research is getting into it's third week with four more waterspouts intercepted this evening. Overall weather pattern is slowly improving after the second week being quite slow and uneventful. Also, incredible lightning show occurred tonight as an outflow boundary collided with an existing cloud line near the lower Keys. |
| Incredible night time waterspout illuminated by lightning bolt I filmed just north of Key West, FL on June 18th, 2009. The waterspout formed dangerously close to numerous sailboats anchored in the mooring field just off Key West... |
| WaterspoutVideo.com - Under Construction |
| Positive lightning strike over Florida Keys on June 17th, 2009 |
| Giant positively charged lightning bolt, also know as a bolt out of the blue strikes near Islamorada, FL on July 12, 2009 |
| Currently in St. John, U.S.V.I. for a couple of weeks. Hoping for some storm chasing / filming down here. The above is view from the place I am renting. Hopefully I can get some good lightning photography opportunities in coming days. That's Tortola, B.V.I. at the very top of the photo above... |
| "Baths", Virgin Gorda Island, British Virgin Islands |
| Florida Keys Waterspout Spray Ring near Lower Matecumbe Key, FL on August 6th, 2009 |
| Florida Keys sunset - Islamorada, FL - August 2009 |
| Florida Keys Backcountry Flats during Summer of 2009 |
| Lightning strike over waters of Florida Bay just north of Craig Key, FL on August 31st, 2009. This year's wet season has been quite frustrating with minimal lightning activity occurring in the upper Keys. Waterspout chasing has been very difficult with low quality air mass present. With moisture starved atmosphere or filled with Saharan dust on many days... waterspouts have been few to film... The only notable events occurred on June 5th in the lower Keys; on June 15th a large waterspout formed just north of Key West and finally on July 25th a large waterspout managed to capsize couple of boats just off Marathon, FL |
| Florida Keys Positively Charged Lightning Bolt near Long Key, FL on September 2nd, 2009 |
| Florida Keys Waterspout Spray Ring near Long Key, FL on September 3rd, 2009. Image from video. |
| Mature Florida Keys Waterspout near Islamorada, FL during early morning of November 4th, 2009. |
| Incredible day with numerous rotating thunderstorms near Florida Keys. Very strong storms woke me up at 5am with nearly continuous lightning and thunder. This shelf cloud rolled through the Upper Keys around 1:30pm followed by another round of strong storms and very heavy rains for the rest of the evening. Cooler days ahead of us for a while. |
| Strong thunderstorms moved through Florida Keys on December 18th, as the SPC had us under a slight risk and a tornado watch for the most of the morning. Numerous cells were showing signs of rotation. The one in photo above came very close to producing something truly spectacular. It clearly had a persistent meso with visible rotation in lower levels while staying quite compact for nearly an hour. Video of this thunderstorm is amazing, especially considering it's mid December. We might be lucky to get more thunderstorm activity next week or so. |