Photographer spent 7 years chasing storms through Tornado Alley

Eric Meola has been a respected photographer for 50 years, working with celebrities like Bruce Springsteen and brands like Timberland and Porsche.

But photographing the Great Plains has always been a passion project for him. In November of this year, Meola released the book "Fierce Beauty", which focuses on the spectacular severe weather events that occur in the Midwest, West, and South of the United States.

Meola has spent years traveling the Tornado Alley, capturing storms, rainbows, and everything in between. 
Here are 12 of the most breathtaking photos from Fierce Beauty.

12 PHOTOS

1. Eric Meola has been a photographer for 50 years. He is especially well known for his work with Bruce Springsteen.

2. During a trip together in 1977, Springsteen wrote his song "Promised Land" after hitting a storm.

3. It was then that Meola discovered his love for stormy weather. For the past seven years, Meola has traveled the Tornado Alley photographing storms.

4. Tornado Alley is an area in the west and south of the United States where tornadoes are most common.

5. However, Meola's photographs are not limited to tornadoes.

6. He took photographs of all kinds of storms.

7. He shares his most breathtaking images in his new book, Ferocious Beauty: Storms of the Great Plains.

8. He traveled through Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Texas and Oklahoma.

9. Meola rode with famed storm hunter Bill Reid of Tempest Tours.

10. Chasing the storm is not the safest hobby. This can sometimes be fatal.

11. While chasing a storm can be dangerous, the number of hunters is growing every year.

12. For Meola, the journey was "hauntingly beautiful."