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An aspiring meteorologist traveled to Arizona hoping to get her senior pictures taken in front of a dust storm.(Mike Olbinski)\u2018A slight risk happens like 2 times a year\u2019<\/p>\nPHOENIX (AZFamily) \u2014 A 17-year-old from Pennsylvania traveled to Arizona to take her senior photos during a monsoon storm, spending about eight hours chasing a haboob with storm chaser and photographer Mike Olbinski on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know how to ever top this,\u201d said Olbinski. \u201cI\u2019m pretty sure that this is my favorite photo shoot of all time already.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lilly Jankowski, who plans 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, knowing there was a chance no severe weather would develop.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s the risk you got to take,\u201d Jankowski said. \u201cLittle me would be so jealous right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
An aspiring meteorologist traveled to Arizona hoping to get her senior pictures taken in front of a dust storm.(Mike Olbinski)\u2018A slight risk happens like 2 times a year\u2019<\/p>\n
The risk paid off. On Sunday, the Storm Prediction Center in Norman issued a slight risk for the area \u2014 a designation Olbinski said occurs roughly twice a year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, Lilly, you brought the luck because the odds of you being here for a slight risk, pretty insane,\u201d Olbinski said.<\/p>\n
Southwest of Casa Grande, they spotted a haboob around 6 p.m. Olbinski continued photographing Jankowski as the wall of dust moved toward them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe dust is right there. It\u2019s just a couple hundred feet moving at us. And I\u2019m like, alright, now let\u2019s get in the car, let\u2019s run. And so she started running. But I kept taking her picture because I was like, this is cool,\u201d Olbinski said. \u201cAnd we got in the car just in time to basically do a four-point turn and then get out of there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018My favorite photo shoot of all time\u2019<\/p>\n
For Olbinski, combining portrait photography with storm chasing was a first. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was magical,\u201c he said. \u201cIf you Google, probably like weddings, senior photos, family photos, and storms, I\u2019m probably one of the only people that\u2019s going to come up for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jankowski said the experience reaffirmed her passion for weather.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never thought I\u2019d actually be doing this. Like I never thought I\u2019d be running from a storm,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Jankowski is about to begin applying to colleges and said her top choice is Arizona State University.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope to be in the tower at an airport forecasting for an airline or broadcasting on a news station for meteorology,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
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A teen traveled to Arizona to get her photos taken in a monsoon.(Mike Olbinski)<\/p>\n
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