Photographer, filmmaker and stormchaser Mike Olbinski has been obsessed with weather since he was a little kid, growing up in Arizona.
When Mike was taking pictures of a fading storm in North Dakota two years ago, the clouds suddenly started to take on a very different and curvy appearance.
These formations in the sky that resemble rippling waves, are so called Asperitas (or undulatus asperatus ) Clouds, which are not only rare, but also the newest addition to the International Cloud Atlas (which has been around since 1896).
“ We had a storm with hail in front of us and flashing lightning which was fantastic.
But then we had this layer of undulatus clouds flowing across our view. Watching them was amazing already, but then the sun slowly appeared from behind some clouds to the west and lit up our storm like nothing we’ve ever seen before.
We were like kids in a candy store. […]
The colors here are real. I only increased the contrast. In fact, I was thinking of actually REDUCING the saturation because of how intense the colors looked with the contrast added. But that's how it was and I left it that way.
Six of us were there and all our photo and videos look the same.
This was undoubtedly one of the most incredible scenes I've witnessed chasing storms for the past 8 years. “
- Mike Oblinski
SIt back and have a look at this mesmerising footage, it’s like watching the sea surface from below…in Cotton Candy Land.
Check out more of Mike’s magical time-lapse footage on his website:
http://www.mikeolbinski.com/storms/
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