13th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Natural World
Shot of a Lifetime

Storm chasers were offered a show in the high plains of Colorado on June 4th 2015. The Colorado Rockies offered a perfect lifting mechanism to initiate supercell thunderstorms like this one. In this shot you can see two (2) tornadoes on the ground with the one on the left being anticyclonic (rotating in a clockwise motion against the counter-clockwise motion of the mesocylcone), which is extremely rare. You can also see a large mesocyclone almost extending to the ground and damage left by the tornadoes.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 06.2015
Date Uploaded: 07.2015
Photo Location: Simla, Colorado, United States of America
Copyright: © Francis Lavigne-Theriault