3 April 2025 — Arkansas — Shelf Cloud Bust — Jeremy Perez

Published on April 3, 2025

I headed south out of Memphis and then back west into Arkansas to shoot for warm advection storms forming south of a stationary front. The best I could manage was a few quick shots of a heavy but diffuse gust front and then a lot of driving trying to get a decent angle on a supercell that just wouldn’t let me get a decent shot.

Driving beneath a diffuse gust front near Clarksdale, MS — 2002Z

Near Star City, AR, as a long shelf cloud moves in — 0001Z

Advancing gust front before I got overtaken and left behind — 2008Z

After dark, even the lightning was elusive. Near Crocketts Bluff, AR — 0137Z

Jeremy Perez

I'm an art director living in Flagstaff, Arizona, USA. I've been photographing monsoon storms and lightning since the eighties. I started chasing severe weather on the Great Plains in 2010. I usually chase solo or with my now adult children. When chasing the Plains, targeting to document a tornado is usually the goal. I'm relieved to say that as hard as that goal is to hit, I'm also captivated by the other sights along the way—the vast horizons, small towns, lightning, storm structure and whatever else gets rolled into that hard-to-reach goal. To date, I've documented 56 tornadoes on 32 storms. Some of them were hazy, mushy views—but a few spectacles stand out and keep me coming back for more: Bowdle, Rozel, Dodge City, Chapman, Ft. Stockton x 2 & Meteor Crater. After plains season each year, the southwest monsoon will be waiting to get started and hopefully opportunities for lightning, haboobs and always hope for a rare landspout.

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