High Plains Drencher, Eastern New Mexico

I try never to leave town without my camera kit in my truck. This is a time it paid off. I had delivered some photographs to an attorney in Albuquerque, then my wife and I, and our two puppies spent the night in Espanola, NM at a very nice hotel to drive home the next day. As we drove past Clines Corners toward Santa Rosa I began seeing a thunderstorm building. When we got to Santa Rosa to begin the final part of the drive home southward the storm system was becoming A Lot more interesting. Within about ten miles south of Santa Rosa it had formed into an actual circular cloud complete with some rotation, and I decided I had to stop my truck, get out the camera gear and set up. By this time there was a fully formed rain column in the middle of it. I made the photograph, loaded back up and skedaddled out of its path. This would not have become tornadic, however it was probably accompanied by heavy rain and damaging hail.