When extremely coming up again, Paul Begijn from Den Bosch gets his camera in the car to look for the storm. He is a storm hunter and enjoys extreme weather conditions. Especially if it succeeds in capturing them with his camera. On Wednesday it remained very calm in his own province, so he set off with a friend in Germany. “You always hope to go home with the price.”
After tropical hot days in the Netherlands, it turned again on Wednesday evening. Dark clouds gathered above a parts of the Netherlands and Germany. For Paul, who has been traveling storms for years, that is the time to take action.
On Wednesday afternoon he boarded the car with a good friend in the direction of Germany to be able to see and record the extreme again. “On Wednesday afternoon it was really bizarre. From scratch, clouds emerged from Limburg to Drenthe,” says Paul enthusiastically. “The lightning detection increased considerably. From scratch there was suddenly a lot. I immediately took action: which mood is interesting and which one is nice for the camera?”
If he has an answer to those questions, the game starts, where you can win or lose. “And of course you hope to go home with the price: a nice photo and the experience that goes with it,” says Paul.
The last few days it was very hot, with temperatures that the 37 degrees signed. That heat is often the prelude to boisterous storm. Especially in combination with incoming cooler air.
Although the circumstances were favorable on Wednesday, the expectations at Paul were not very high. “On Wednesday it was especially a lot of heavy gusts of wind and trees and branches that came loose or fell over. In the end I was able to capture some nice lightning.”
Last month it was hit for Paul. “I then drove to Normandy with a few other storm chasers and there we have been able to capture a super cell, the heaviest thunderstorm that can occur. That is the photo of the year for me.”
Storm hunting is not a hobby without dangers. In an earlier adventure in Zeeland, Paul kept it on the beach for twenty minutes before he had to bring himself to safety. “I couldn’t stand up myself. I really had to stick to a traffic sign and then fled the car,” he says.
