after the storm
Terri Webster Schrandt

Sunday Stills: Riders on the #Storm

This week’s Sunday Stills Photo Challenge theme is “STORM.” My subtheme shows stormy weather from some of our road trips (hence my post’s title). As usual, the themes are wide open to your interpretation if you are participating in the challenge.

Storms are a period of extreme weather caused by atmospheric disturbances.

rain clouds road
Rainclouds in hot pursuit, Sacramento, California

“You can learn to prevent a storm, or you can learn to ride the storm. If you learn to ride the storm, the storm is not a problem anymore.” – Jaggi Vasudev

Because we take a fair number of roadtrips by car, from Northeastern Washington to various points south and east, we’re likely to experience turbulent weather on any of these trips.

Ride along with me as we drive through some interesting stormy weather.

One of my favorite road trips began at the end of March 2023, when we attended my daughter’s wedding in San Diego. This view of the snowfall as we drove through Hells Canyon, Idaho, was magical. Another reason we have two 4-wheel-drive vehicles at our disposal.

Road Through Hells Canyon, Idaho
Road Through Hells Canyon, Idaho

Once we got into Utah, north of Salt Lake City, the aftereffects of the winter storm made for a beautiful drive on Hwy 15.

snowy road to Salt Lake City
On the Road to Salt Lake City

During that same trip, we arrived in San Diego during stormy weather. As we drove on Mt Helix in eastern San Diego, a pop-up shower drenched the roads. We squirmed a bit, worrying that we’d have rain during her outdoor wedding two days later.

after the storm

During another trip through Southern Utah, the sky was alive with clouds that produced “virga,” basically rain that doesn’t reach the ground. Virga is commonly seen in the deserts during spring storms.

stormy skies
Stormy Skies in Southern Utah

Where there’s a storm, danger lurks…

Storms can be beautiful and mesmerizing when viewed from the safety of a vehicle or your home. As we completed this wedding road trip, after spending two days in Missoula, Montana, we encountered dangerous driving conditions on the ride home. Believe it or not, we lucked out by driving behind a snowplough that led the way to Highway 90.

Homebound behind the snowplow through Central Montana
Homebound behind the snowplow through Central Montana

On another trip in 2019, we drove to Northern Arizona while we still lived in Sacramento. On December 31, the day after our arrival at the campground in Sedona, a rare winter storm descended, dropping up to 7 inches of snow within an hour. We had just left the campground to drive less than a mile to the gas station and grocery store, snow gently falling.

Truck and Trailer
Clear skies at the Campsite, First Day in Sedona

People assured us that it snows for a few minutes, then stops and melts quickly. Within the hour, holiday traffic was snarled on the main road through town. We tried to drive up Schnebly Road to the campground entrance, but without chains, it was a no-go, and we ended up parking in a lot next to an art gallery. Anxiously, I grabbed our groceries and hiked back to our trailer.

We were stuck in the campground for three days because we didn’t have chains for the truck. Imagine buying chains in the desert southwest.

In this image, taken later the same day, an RV trying to navigate the turn into the campground slid onto the other side of the road, with only the trees preventing it from tumbling over the edge.

RV and person
RV slid to the wrong side of the road! That is me walking up the hill later in the day.

“There are some things you can only learn in a storm.” – Joel Osteen

Stormy Northern Lights

Did anyone have the pleasure of witnessing the latest aurora on Jan 19 and 20? I had chosen this Sunday Stills theme before I was aware of the geomagnetic storm that caused this latest series of northern lights. Alas, our cloud/FOG deck was too thick for us to see them this time.

Thrilling, huh?

aurora fog

A severe (G4) Geomagnetic Storm Watch was in effect (on Jan 19) and continued January 20, as people looked for pretty lights dazzling the night sky across the Northern U.S., due to the arrival of a coronal mass ejection (CME), which is a large expulsion of plasma and magnetic field from the sun’s corona. SOURCE

This was captured on a road trip to Winthrop, Washington, in the North Cascades in October 2024. The geomagnetic storm was intense, and was seen over our heads the night we arrived. Red lights are seen at 150 miles (240 km) above the Earth.

night sky

In May 2024, we enjoyed the intense northern lights from our street.

Aurora Rays of pink and green

Fortunately, after any storm, the clouds move away, the sun comes out, and a rainbow may appear.

Rainbow over construction
Rainbow over construction project

“The storm is an artist; the rainbow is its masterpiece.” – Matshona Dhliwayo

Sharing for Johnbo’s Cellpic Sunday

flower border

Sunday Stills Photo Challenge Reminders

The Sunday Stills weekly-themed photo challenge is easy to join. You have all week to share and link your post. Please use your own original images, whether new or from your archives.

  • Remember to title your blog post a little differently from mine.
  • Please create a new post for the theme or link to a recent one.
  • Entries for this theme can be posted all week.
  • Tag your post “Sunday Stills.”
  • Don’t forget to create a pingback to this post so that other participants can read your post.
  • I also recommend adding your post’s URL to the comments.

If you are participating in the photo challenge, I look forward to seeing how you interpret this week’s theme! Creativity is encouraged, so please share your own photographs (old or new), poems, original short stories, and music inspired by the theme. Join me next week as we explore Feed the Birds.

I pray that many of my blogger friends who may be experiencing the latest arctic blast and ice storms are safe!

“Ride the storm. Cheer wildly. Gather strength from life’s storms.” – Jonathan Lockwood Huie

bitmoji plaid

© 2026 Copyright — Terri Webster Schrandt and secondwindleisure.com — All Rights Reserved

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94 comments

  10. Your pictures are compelling and delightful, my friend. You should be a storm chaser! Fabulous. I wouldn’t want to be out in those storms. The northern lights is another matter. I’d love to see those. They said we could see them here one night, but it was so foggy we couldn’t see the huge street light across the lawn. Does fog count as a storm????

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      • If I’d had more time to write, and hadn’t been so lazy yesterday, I would have looked up some pictures for you. In fact I tried, but not to complain any more, Lightroom Classic didn’t work on my new computer, and when I went to my old one, I found a lot of missing files. I started down that rabbit hole, and stopped myself in the nick of time before I disappeared completely.

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  13. What a stunning set of photos, Terri. Thus far, we have survived Winter Storm Fern. Though we didn’t get the brunt of it, we still have ice, and howling winds. I have a photo of a double rainbow, I took on my birthday when visiting Helen, Ga, in 2019. 🥶

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  15. I enjoy a good storm, although usually from the comfort of home. However, it’s the wind that frightens me more than anything else. I’ve had occasions when I think the roof of the house is going to be blown off. Over the last 20 years, storms have seemed to be becoming much more frequent.

    I missed the Northern Lights (again). It was cloudy, so I probably wouldn’t have seen them, but there were some spectacular pictures taken from the U.K. for those lucky enough to see them, Terri.

    When it comes to rainbows, I’ve seen plenty. But have you ever seen a double or triple rainbow, Terri? They’re supposed to be signs of good luck to those who see them. Strangely enough, on the day I last saw a double rainbow, I won the whopping amount of £10 on a lottery. Still, better than not winning at all.

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    • Wind storms can be scary (unless you’re a windsurfer), Hugh. On one road trip we saw an RV blown over by the wind! There is definitely more wild weather we’ve experienced over the years. We really need a snow pack here, and the forecast expects a warming trend this week.
      I’ve only seen a few double rainbows, I’m glad it brought you a bit of luck! Wishing you a great week!

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  19. I bet the people in the RV would have been scared witless 😮 You have some great stormy scenes Terri. I have not heard of it raining but the rain not touching the ground before. I had to laugh as I read viagra 😂

    So lucky to see the aurora, it’s beautiful even in photos

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  22. Terri, that rainbow is almost surreal-looking. You got some wonderful Aurora pictures. We did have some Aurora glimpses here those days, but not near here and as I mentioned to you in a comment, it was brutally cold, so opening the door to look out, it would frost up the glass and it was way below zero “real feel”. We’ve had several snow squalls lately and one caused a 100-car pile-up on the expressway. Luckily, no one was seriously injured. We got almost seven inches of snow here in the southern counties mostly, which was me.

    I get allergy shots once a month and about 20 or so years ago, I came home from work about 5:30 p.m., a gorgeous day/early evening, then dropped off my “bus bag” at home and got the car out of the garage to drive two miles to get my shots. I can’t stress what a beautiful Summer day it was. One mile into my trip, the sky was still blue and it began to hail – hard. I could hardly see to drive and other drivers were stopping in their tracks (very dangerous), so we all eventually stopped as it was hailing so hard. The pellets were not huge, the size of a pencil eraser maybe. I got to the allergist’s office, one mile away from this hail event – no trace of hail at all. It was like it didn’t happen. I jumped out of the car to check for damage and for the rest of the time I had this burgundy Regal, whenever the sun hit it just right, you could see all the dents on the hood and trunk, some on the roof – it had a Landau roof. Weird.

    I linked this post to my post, as I mentioned the big storm Fern, but briefly – there are lots of flowers in my post, so I will link to Flower Hour on Tuesday.

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    • Wow, that’s crazy to experience hail seconds after a clear blue sky, Linda. We’ve had that here too. All that winter blast went right past us here. Our two good months of potential snowpack are waning. And our weather is warming.
      Look forward to your posts!

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      • Yes, that hail was crazy! Luckily it did no damage to the finish that needed repair. That’s great you didn’t deal with the Winter blast. Our coldest night, worse than the weekend, is upon us and it is cold in the house. I have the heat set at 76 but don’t want to raise it more as it will tax the furnace too much … a real feel of -27 is just crazy. I hope you like the posts which will bring warm thoughts.

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  23. Thankfully, you are safely bound on your destination, Terri. Hwy 19 and 90 look like driver must be carefully driving. That northern light is just amazing. I even enjoyed our sunrise and sunset here with few colors, how much more those magnificent colors in the sky. Enjoy every time, Terri. The photos are stunning!

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  26. Wow Terri, these are brilliant examples of storm phots and I love the travelogue as you take us through each of them too. I didn’t know about virga, so thanks for that information! We have another heatwave here at the moment with high 30s and mid 40s forecast for all week so would like a storm or two to swing on by!

    I’ve written a post and ‘sort of mentioned storm in a round about way, I hope that’s ok!! But you know me I like to be a bit different 🙂

    https://debs-world.com/2026/01/25/a-fun-day-out-at-jamberoo-action-park-and-the-perfect-storm-sundaystills/

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  29. Terri, Wow! You have driven through some pretty scary storms! I hope you had plenty of food and your heater in the camper worked when you were stranded in your campground for three days! We had a few scary situations towing our fifth wheel through storms.

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    • I guess it’s inevitable to encounter storms when traveling, as you know, Beth. The campground in Sedona was great, full hookups, etc. The office even had DVDs we could use to watch movies on our laptop. 5th wheels are a whole other complication!

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  30. Lovely images! It was snowing here in January when the aurora storm came through. Darn it all. Some people in the thumb of Michigan saw some of it. It was supposed to be the biggest storm in 20 years, but here in Michigan no one saw anything that spectacular. I think people in Norway and Sweden saw some wonderful sights.

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    • Thank you! Too bad the light show in Michigan was a dud. It happens. We’ve been lucky in most cases, especially in 2024. Since we’ve lived in Eastern Washington I’ve seen 10 separate northern lights. Hope you’re staying safe with this winter blast!

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  32. Fabulous pictures, as usual, Terri! Storms can be frightening at times. I remember driving across Nebraska, taking my son to his summer job in Jackson, WY. Suddenly, tornado warnings blasted out of the radio, non-stop. A furious wind blew across the highway, but we couldn’t see a thing for the dust. Fortunately, it was a non-event, but scary nonetheless. Have a great week! Joe

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  33. Fabulous stormy shots, Terri. I particularly like the Header one and I hope it was dry for the wedding. It can be scary out there but beautiful too. Our windscreen wipers were going like crazy this afternoon. The heavy rain only lasts a few minutes but people often don’t slow down for the conditions xx

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  36. Riders on the storm
    Riders on the storm
    Into this house we’re born
    Into this world we’re thrown
    Like a dog without a bone

    One of my favorite songs! Your photos are spectacular, Terri. Wonderfully stormy skies.

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  37. Wonderful gallery! All beautiful photos. I love the rainbow over the construction site. That photo behind the snowplow looked scary and slippery. Love the first photo driving into Sacramento. A fabulous January theme selection as always, Terri.

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  38. This is such an interesting post, Terri and the photos are incredible. Driving during a storm sounds scary but you make it sound fun. I didn’t know of the term ‘virga’ until now. So, thank you!
    I love how the pictures you’ve shared during your drive to your daughter’s wedding shows the change in the weather across cities.
    The picture of the Northern lights where the sky is red is stunning. Thank you for this wonderful post❤️

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    • Thank you, Smitha! I feel happy to capture these scenes when we’re out and about. Driving through so many over the years has taught me and hubby to be careful and patient on the road.

      Isn’t virga fascinating? You can tell i enjoy watching the weather forecasts on TV. Hope you’re enjoying your summer weather!

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  42. Beautiful photos! I remember that snowfall in 2019 that you speak of in Sedona. We had snow on our mountain here in town.
    I love your northern lights! How fun for you.
    Enjoy your Sunday.

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    • Thank you, Nancy! That snow was crazy! We got delayed and stuck in Sedona on New Year’s Eve and couldn’t drive out of the campground for 2 more days. Even the campground staff were stuck and couldn’t drive home. We had reservations at Lake Powell, which I tearfully cancelled, as well as a chance to visit Antelope Canyon. We ended up spending a few days in Las Vegas where I discovered the Valley of Fire State Park. We had a blast exploring Vegas area. Happy Sunday to you!

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  45. I’m researching extinction events from 40,000 years ago and one of them was indicated by extreme Northern lights. Happily, they are no relation to our normal ones of today according to Grok, but it always gives me pause.

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