A Storm-Chasing Photographer Creates a Dramatic Video of Supercell Thunderstorms

Most people flee inside at the sight of thunderclouds, but Chad Cowan runs towards them. As Colossal reports, the Kansas-based photographer and filmmaker has spent the past decade chasing storms across America’s Tornado Alley, a storm-prone region in the southern plains of the central United States.

Cowan’s goal, according to his website, is “to capture the awe inspiring beauty of nature in the most extreme and violent weather on Earth.” And with the timelapse video below, which Cowan created with friend Kevin X Barth, he does just that. Called Fractal, the three-minute film features the most awe-inspiring moments from hundreds of supercell thunderstorms, which Cowan recorded in high definition “over the last six years from Texas to North Dakota and everywhere in between,” he explains on Vimeo.

“The project started out as wanting to be able to see the life cycles of these storms, just for my own enjoyment and to increase my understanding of them,” Cowan writes. “Over time, it morphed into an obsession with wanting to document as many photogenic supercells as I could, in as high a resolution as possible, as to be able to share with those who couldn't see first-hand the majestic beauty that comes alive in the skies above America's Great Plains every Spring.”

You can watch Fractal below: