Southern Arizona storm chaser gets charge out of weather photography honor

A shot of lighting crashing down on El Paso, Texas, has earned a Southern Arizona storm chaser high marks in an international weather photography competition.

Rio Rico photographer Lauren Bailey — better known as Lori Grace Bailey to her followers on social media — is on the shortlist of the U.K.’s Royal Meteorological Society and Accuweather’s 2020 Weather Photographer of the Year contest.

Bailey said she captured the photo, titled “Predawn Thunderstorm over El Paso,” while in southwest Texas on family business last fall. She said she was checking weather radar at about 5 a.m. — “don’t ask me why” — and saw the storm cell “dropping bolts” as it moved up from Mexico.

Bailey said she positioned herself at the top of El Paso’s aptly named Scenic Drive before the sun came up and caught several stunning lightning shots before heading back down the hill in the pouring rain.

“That’s definitely one of my best,” said Bailey, who just wrapped up her fifth season chasing monsoon storms across Arizona with her cameras.

This is the fifth year of the Weather Photographer of the Year competition. Bailey’s competition included more than 7,700 images by 2,600 photographers from around the world. A five-judge panel picked the top 26 photographs.

Bailey said three other storm chasers she knows — all of them women and two of them also from Arizona — are among this year’s finalists.

“Arizona is represented in the world of photography,” she said. “There are some damn good images. Just to be a finalist in a contest like this is such an honor.”

The overall winners will be decided by online voting, which closed on Friday, Sept. 25. The results will be announced on Oct. 17.