Following a morning jaunt chasing wannabe flying saucers around the Capitan Mountains east of Roswell, we headed north to Fort Sumner where a truly spectacular supercell was developing.
Having barely moved or changed shape for over an hour, this storm seemed intent on setting fire to the scrubland with its intense lightning as it mustered the strength to a drop a tornado.
Moving to an intercept position we passed through the point of scorched earth and drove through the smoke as it screamed into the storm's inflow region, momentarily creating a strange, eerie landscape.
We sat beneath the tumultuous liberty bell shaped base as it passed overhead, watching the air being raked into the updraft as hailstones fell around us. With the sun going down and the storm ramping up, all manner of greens, teals and blues emanated from the storm against a backdrop of orange and gold as it threw out fierce violet coloured lightning bolts.
Storms in this part of tornado alley really are exceptionally pretty.