Professional storm chaser Hank Schyma never expected his most memorable photograph would come from the window of a motel room after a day of missed opportunities in the Arizona desert. The dramatic lightning shot, captured during monsoon season, represents both the unpredictable nature of storm chasing and the artistic beauty that can emerge from Mother Nature's most powerful displays.
Schyma's photograph was taken on what he describes as "a very frustrating day" during July monsoon season in Arizona, when he "kept missing everything." After spending the entire day in the stormy desert, he had given up and returned to his motel room. "I was taking a shower when I heard the rumbling and I rushed to the window," Schyma recalls. "I had washed the sand out of my teeth and ears, from being in the stormy desert all day, and I didn't want to go back out, so I thought: I'm just going to take a shot from my motel room."
The storms Schyma was chasing that day were pulse storms, a type of thunderstorm that creates a chaotic game of cat and mouse for storm chasers. "The type of thunderstorms that were happening that day are called pulse storms, which seemingly randomly go up and come down in a cycle that lasts about 30 minutes," he explains. "One will pop up and you'll drive over, but by the time you get there it's died, and then one pops up over the spot you just left. It's like Whac-a-Mole."
For Schyma, who considers himself an artist, capturing storms presents unique creative challenges. "I fancy myself as an artist but Mother Nature does all the work," he admits. "If there's a tornado on a flat horizon, how do you make that artistic? It's something I constantly struggle with. Maybe you capture the flowers bending into it. But ultimately you just go: Click, got it. So any time I can do something different, like this, is rewarding."
Schyma's obsession with storms began in early childhood and stems from his fascination with monsters and the unknown. "I have been obsessed with storms for as long as I can remember. At four years old I was sketching tornadoes and scouring library books for them," he says. "I think the reason is, I loved monsters: Godzilla, the Loch Ness monster, UFOs. I grew up in Texas where we had tornado drills at school, but never Godzilla or UFO drills, so maybe for me tornadoes were the only monsters that actually existed."
The pursuit of storms has not always been safe for Schyma, who has experienced multiple near-death encounters throughout his career. His motivation, however, isn't adrenaline-based. "Most people don't want to see a tornado. Pursuing them disrupted school or family get-togethers, because I always had this ridiculous craving for storms. I'm happy when I'm around them. It's not about adrenaline, which makes me shaky and uncomfortable. It's about beauty."
Schyma's most recent dangerous encounter occurred in 2023 in Nebraska, when ego and competition nearly cost him his life. "The last time was in 2023, when hubris got the best of me and I drove too close to a stupidly ugly rain-wrapped tornado in Nebraska," he recounts. Earlier that day, he had missed "a beautiful white tornado in the middle of nowhere" where "all my friends and competition were there, but I was an hour late because we were driving up from Texas."
In an attempt to catch up, Schyma made a dangerous decision that he now recognizes as driven by ego rather than sound judgment. "I went into catch-up mode. Another storm went up, a tornado embedded in rain, so you couldn't see it. I drove into the rain, risking my life," he admits. The experience taught him valuable lessons about the psychological pressures of storm chasing. "My friends and I debrief after storms, and in this debrief I realized: Wow, I'm more susceptible to ego, hubris and competition than I thought. Understanding that about myself has helped me during dangerously tempting moments to think: Back off, dude, live to fight another day."
Despite the dangers, Schyma has witnessed some of nature's most spectacular displays. His favorite storm experience came on May 24, 2016, when he finally encountered what storm chasers call the holy grail: a cyclic supercell. "There's a type called a cyclic supercell. It's like a relay racer handing a baton to the next person who then hands it on to the next. These storms do that with tornadoes, and you can have multiple tornadoes on the ground as it hands on the power to the next cycling updraft," he explains.
The 2016 storm delivered everything veteran chasers dream of experiencing. "All the old chasers talked about these legendary days when a cyclic supercell traveled over open country and there were 10 or 12 photogenic tornadoes throughout the day. I had always missed them until finally, on May 24, 2016, I got the ultimate cyclic supercell over open country, well lit, crazy-beautiful tornadoes, two, sometimes three for most of the event. And it didn't kill anybody."
Schyma uses various tools and techniques to track storms, adapting his approach based on the type of weather system he's pursuing. "When you have a big open sky you can see the distant storms, but I also use a radar because you might have mountains or other clouds blocking your view, and this type of storm is chaotic and unorganized," he notes. "Chasing tornadoes is different. Those last for hours, and you can sometimes forecast promising conditions four or five days in advance."
Born in Houston, Texas, Schyma is entirely self-taught and draws inspiration from diverse sources including Jim Morrison, Stanley Kubrick, and Mother Nature. Among his achievements is discovering a new transient luminous event he coined "the green ghost." His book "Storm: Chasing Nature's Wildest Weather" was published on October 28 by DK Travel, offering readers insights into his adventures and the science behind severe weather phenomena. For aspiring photographers and storm chasers, his advice is simple: "Aim for what you like, not what you think others will like."
