Meteorologist-in-the-making captures senior photos in Arizona dust storm

PHOENIX — A 17-year-old from Pennsylvania made a bold decision to travel to Arizona for her senior photos, choosing to capture the moment during a monsoon storm. She spent approximately eight hours with storm chaser and photographer Mike Olbinski on Sunday, chasing a haboob, which is a powerful dust storm.

“I don’t know how to ever top this,” said Olbinski. “I’m pretty sure that this is my favorite photo shoot of all time already.”

Lilly Jankowski, who is planning to study meteorology in college, came up with the idea more than a year ago. She flew into Phoenix with her parents over the weekend, aware that there was a chance no severe weather would occur.

“And that’s the risk you got to take,” Jankowski said. “Little me would be so jealous right now.”

‘A slight risk happens like 2 times a year’

The risk paid off. On Sunday, the Storm Prediction Center in Norman issued a slight risk for the area — a designation that Olbinski said occurs roughly twice a year.

“I was like, Lilly, you brought the luck because the odds of you being here for a slight risk, pretty insane,” Olbinski said.

Southwest of Casa Grande, they spotted a haboob around 6 p.m. Olbinski continued photographing Jankowski as the wall of dust moved toward them.

“The dust is right there. It’s just a couple hundred feet moving at us. And I’m like, alright, now let’s get in the car, let’s run. And so she started running. But I kept taking her picture because I was like, this is cool,” Olbinski said. “And we got in the car just in time to basically do a four-point turn and then get out of there.”

‘My favorite photo shoot of all time’

For Olbinski, combining portrait photography with storm chasing was a first.

“It was magical,” he said. “If you Google, probably like weddings, senior photos, family photos, and storms, I’m probably one of the only people that’s going to come up for that.”

Jankowski said the experience reaffirmed her passion for weather.

“I never thought I’d actually be doing this. Like I never thought I’d be running from a storm,” she said.

Jankowski is about to begin applying to colleges and said her top choice is Arizona State University.

“I hope to be in the tower at an airport forecasting for an airline or broadcasting on a news station for meteorology,” she said.