Mike Charnick

Saturn 2026! Taken a few days past opposition. It doesn't look like much, but this is the result of 7000 stacked and processed video frames and high-end seeing conditions. Pushing the limits of what you can pull out from a 30-year old 127mm Newtonian attached to a beat-up Canon T3i #saturn #astro

Explored/discovered (?) what may be the largest remaining ice cave in Colorado this weekend! The scale and colors of this place were absolutely magical to experience. Sadly, this hidden gem likely has only a few years left to survive as it rapidly melts away.

The Colorado River basin's 2025-26 water year (October-September) was the warmest on record. It was also the least snowy on record. Only 16.8% of the (below average) precipitation fell as snow - shattering the previous record low.

Sometimes you just have to draw a line in the sand and say something is ready. I've spent the last month or so not only adding level II site functionality to Heimdall, but what I consider to be genuinely novel functionality and interactivity. It's live for you to try at heimdall.stormscale.io

January-September 2026 was the warmest Jan-Sep on record for the Contiguous U.S. since 1895 according to PRISM climate data. Seems red. 🔥🔥🔥

Lovely assortment from yesterday. I occasionally have weird dreams I am sorting through a vast field of hailstones and yesterday’s experience probably will result in more of those…

Giant hail up to 4 inches (!!!) in diameter between Eads and Chivington Colorado, measured over an hour after it fell! This is the largest hail stone I have held in Colorado. #cowx #hail

Big occluded mesocyclone east of Hugo, Colorado! #cowx

Gorgeous supercell developing east of Limon, Colorado! Is it late September or late May?! #cowx

One of my all-time favorites, from my favorite season, in my favorite mountain range. Gold rush at Minnie's Haberdashery! #COwx #fall #peep

While eclipses are on the brain today here is another of my favorites - this time from 2024 Eclipse in AK. A gigantic red solar prominence, many times the size of planet earth, shines in the bottom right at the moment the sun emerges at 3rd contact! #eclipse2024 #solareclipse #eclipse

Happy Eclipse 2026 Day! While I won't be photographing this one (apologies to all the folks in Iceland who are clouded over), it is never a bad time to revisit my favorite photo ever. Alone in the Grand Teton backcountry. The thrill of planning preparing& capturing this got me hooked on photography!

Gave up chasing this year for a Denali expedition in May/June, so I really do not have much to share from this season. The view approaching this supercell in late June in northeast Colorado was a nice consolation prize however! #COwx

I should not be surprised after the ‘winter’ we had, followed by a scorching summer, but Arapaho Glacier is almost gone. It’s a location I visit often as it’s not far from home, and it’s the first time I’ve seen it in such a dismal state.

Radar/CG timestamp for the data nostalgia

The ultimate Fort Collins thunderstorm photo - double CG lightning strike over Horsetooth Mountain! Can not believe I was lucky enough to capture this yesterday afternoon. If you look closely on the left, you can see the red glow of a tree burst/fire. 👌📸🏆 #COwx #lightning #monsoon

Finally some backyard monsoon bolts tonight in Fort Collins! It has been a while since I have used the big camera at home. ⚡ #lightning #photography #monsoon #COwx

Elite webcam catch in the Alberta front range. 🌪️ DOT cams undefeated in Canada, @brendonme.bsky.social

An otherworldly "cosmic" sunrise, deep in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. This particularly gorgeous corner of the country has been in the news a lot lately. Taken ~5 years ago. And yes, you can indeed stand there! #sunrise #desert #Utah #GrandStaircase

Peaceful few days escaping the heat and floating the upper Colorado River this weekend ✌️

Episode 49 producing an impressive volnado.

Denali: The roof of North America at 20,310’! It is said you don’t just climb Denali, you endure it. After a 3-week odyssey in one of the most inhospitable places on earth, I can think of no more accurate description. Climbing the West Buttress route & finishing under the midnight sun-unforgettable!

Harvested some whopper hailstones and saw a nice occlusion in far eastern CO/KS today, despite sky high LCLs. Saw the suspect dust swirl as well…a bit more moisture and GLD would have been in trouble! #COwx #kswx

Classic May day in southeast Wyoming….skied a few laps off Medicine Bow Peak, and bonus storm structure after! #wywx

Fully occluded mesocyclone/couplet in the high desert of Nevada! May have just had a tornado in remote Elko county. As a former high desert dweller these events still fascinate me…

Akron, from the other side at probably the exact same time.

Incredibly shallow, post-frontal upslope easterly flow has funneled smoke from the Nebraska wildfires into Fort Collins this morning. Some of the highest PM2.5 concentrations in the world ATTM due to a lack of vertical dispersion - the cold frontal inversion is less than 1kft thick!

90 mph wind gust at the Cheyenne Wyoming ASOS (78kts) just set the all-time wind speed record at KCYS! #wywx #wind

Wyoming “cinema” on the way to work this morning…70-80mph surface synoptic winds causing havoc on I-25. Half a dozen flipped trucks and ‘dirt excavation’ in unplowed ranchland. Could see gap/downslope winds top out 90-100mph today! #wywx

Full panorama of the 2025 Dickens/Wellfleet LP tornado+supercell! View is looking ESE up into the mesocyclone. The RFD clear slot is visible in the upper right, and in the distance on the bottom left you can even see a bit of the FFCB. Stationary supercell with deviant westerly tornado. Perfection!

Greetings from Africa! This is Kevin. Everyone say hello to Kevin! This is one of only ~1,000 remaining Mountain Gorillas left in the world. We were lucky enough to spend some time with this amazing gorilla family in Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda.

First light after the storm on the stunning Cuernos del Paine mountains - Chilean #Patagonia, 2025. A powerful late-spring blizzard dropped several meters of snow on the southern Andes during during the first days of our trip. Once the skies finally broke, the views were incredible! #Chile #sunrise

The legendary Fitz Roy at sunrise above Cascada Escondida. Patagonia at its finest! El Chaltean, Argentina 2025. #patagonia #fitzroy #photography #sunrise #waterfall

So close and yet so far…just a bit west of a big-time South American dryline severe weather day. Looks like some supercells in there too. Would love to experience one of these in the future, but not on this trip!

Chugwater, Wyoming around 9:30pm 11/12. Not as vivid as last night but a nice green glow and some diffuse red pillars! #aurora #wywx #northernlights

Brought the big camera to work for the Aurora show this evening. A WSR-88D radar makes for an interesting urban foreground! #wywx #aurora

Rather epic scene outside of NWS Cheyenne right now…covering an evening shift and got some nice photos around the office! #Wyoming #wywx #aurora #northernlights

Incredible Sentinal-2 satellite imagery of #Melissa at peak intensity before landfall. In the cloud-free areas of the eye you can see the physical effect of the surface wind gradient (2nd image): chaotic whitecapped waves near center transition to extreme sea spray/linear streaking near the eyewall!

#Comet #Lemmon last weekend, with both the ion and dust tails visible. The ion tail (thin one) was shocked by a solar storm the day before, resulting in a fractured look. 30x20s exposures at 600mm. Star trails in the b-round due to the comet itself moving over the ~10m of imaging. #astro

A year ago tonight over the Medicine Bow mountains in Wyoming! This was the same G5 geomagnetic storm that gave many folks along the east coast urban corridor their first view of aurora. Enjoy! ✨ #solarstorm #aurora #auroraborealis #WYwx

A wild gradient of color angled across this scene made for one of the more unique fall photos I've shot. Taken last year on an adventure into some lesser-known wilderness in Colorado. #cowx #fall #peepin

Earlier this summer, an opportunity presented itself to climb the Montana state highpoint: Granite Peak in the Beartooth Range. This was my last of the Lower 48 "Big 3". A brutal 2-day push to bag the peak, what a beautiful reward to get to exist in some of the more remote wilderness in the US!#MTwx

Dreaming of Wellfleet/Dickens...the perfect tornado. 👌 6/16/25 #NEwx #tornado

🚨It's happening people! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! 🚨 Spotted yesterday 8/28 in southeast Wyoming. Summer is OVER! 💪❄️

The classic Rainier + Tacoma Harbor shot. From 2022. #wawx #sunset #Rainier

Rainier, Adams, Hood and Jefferson from the north in monochrome. Taken on approach to SEA on our climbing trip. #WAwx #Rainier

While waiting for a weather window to summit Rainier, we saw several epic lenticular/cap clouds over the summit throughout the week. This telephoto view was particularly wild - a combo of stratified lenticular clouds over the summit & convective surface clouds underneath. #wawx #Rainier

Mount Rainier- State highpoint #40! The theme of this trip was resilience. A self-guided climb was certainly an added challenge and really forced competence with crevasse rescue skills and route finding. Got the weather window we needed & gutted out 9,200’ to what I’d consider my hardest summit yet!