Cap Bust | Artesia to Milnesand, New Mexico | 26 May 2023 — Jeremy Perez

Published on May 26, 2023

This was a day of bad forecast choices. I liked the enhanced H5 flow, shear and greater instability in the southeast corner of the state and we targeted Roswell and points south/southeast. Convection was firing by early afternoon up near Albuquerque and as 00Z approached, it sounded like fun times up there with social media indicating people bailing on the south option. I decided to hang with it though and we were rewarded with clear skies. Approaching sunset, we did get a short-lived attempt at an updraft and some lovely crepuscular rays near Artesia. But yeah, not really what I was after.

Crepuscular display west of Artesia. 0106Z

After sunset, we cruised north & east of Roswell and I tried for some sprite photography of a storm 60 or so miles away up near Elida. Bright moonlight made for bad contrast on a storm that probably wasn’t producing those anyway.

Looking northeast of Roswell, at essentially nothing in terms of sprite action. 0303Z

On the chance that cell would survive a while longer, we headed closer and had a look up west of Milnesand. Lots of low level clouds obscured any real structure and after getting a few shots, we called it a day and hoped for better on the 27th.

At least we did see a storm before midnight. Mostly obscured supercell NW of Milnesand. 0556Z

Jeremy Perez

I'm a commercial graphic artist and 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 40 tornadoes on 23 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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