“The following images are what one would miss, sitting out a close to home chase day because it didn’t look worth the drive….”

So wrote Nebraskan stormchaser Mike Hollingshead, recalling a 2004 day where he and buddy Steve Peterson spotted a brewing supercell storm on the horizon. (Supercells are the granddaddy hours-long breed of thunderstorms, the biggest and most severe.) Considering the jawdroppingly amazing pics Hollingshead snagged that day, we’re glad he decided to chase the thing.

The photos of this storm posted here are just a few of the breathtaking collection at Hollingshead’s site, ExtremeInstability.com. It’s well-worth the mouseclick, but we’ll synopsize some of that day for you here.

What started as a seemingly average supercell storm (it’s hard thinking that these city-sized storms can come in a “vanilla” flavor) whipped itself into something far nastier: 40 mph winds for starters (”The powerlines were screaming overhead during this (from the wind through them),” Hollingshead writes), and then the storm’s structure transformed into shapes the veteran stormchaser “had never seen” before.

We can sympathize. This thing looks like a frickin’ harbinger of the apocalypse:

As Hollingshead and Peterson followed the supercell from Spencer, Nebraska, to Sioux City, the thing evolved into “something even more crazier than it was before.” A massive donut shape began to form, blotting out the sun.

Storm sirens blared in Souix City. A passerby encouraged the stormchasers to seek shelter, but Holligshead knew he was at a safe distance and continued taking pictures.

The shots are nigh-unbelievable, and we’re glad he stuck around. If you dig this kind of remarkable photography, bebop over to ExtremeInstability.com for many more galleries of Hollingshead’s work. Tremendous stuff.

Mined by: J.C. Hutchins, via Reddit; all photos copyright Mike Hollingshead