The day’s outflow-dominant storm intercept finished, we rolled south, the hunters now the hunted, cruising at barely legal speeds on the interstate highway to stay ahead of the core. As we surfed the cold outflow winds, we remained for a long time beneath the “whale’s mouth” of an uncommonly beautiful, well-defined, slate-blue underbelly of the arcus cloud. The striking coloration may have been related to the time of day: cool hues of early twilight dominating, the warm tones of sunset blocked by a dense wall of more storms unseen to the distant west. Fingers of scud reached groundward from within the formation’s outer lip, occasionally intermingling with plumes of dust raised beneath. These fingers did not rotate and were not funnel clouds. Light was so low, without good logistics to set up a tripod, that I had to “bracket sharpness”—in other words, rapid-fire numerous hand-held frames at 1/10 to 1/20 of a second, in hopes that at least one would have no smudging from motion. Fortunately, this one worked!
2 WSW Perry OK (15 May 9) Looking SW
36.2752, -97.3288Dark Turbulent Arcus Base
The day’s outflow-dominant storm intercept finished, we rolled south, the hunters now the hunted, cruising at barely legal speeds on the interstate highway to stay ahead of the core. As we surfed the cold outflow winds, we remained for a long time beneath the “whale’s mouth” of an uncommonly beautiful, well-defined, slate-blue underbelly of the arcus cloud. The striking coloration may have been related to the time of day: cool hues of early twilight dominating, the warm tones of sunset blocked by a dense wall of more storms unseen to the distant west. Fingers of scud reached groundward from within the formation’s outer lip, occasionally intermingling with plumes of dust raised beneath. These fingers did not rotate and were not funnel clouds. Light was so low, without good logistics to set up a tripod, that I had to “bracket sharpness”—in other words, rapid-fire numerous hand-held frames at 1/10 to 1/20 of a second, in hopes that at least one would have no smudging from motion. Fortunately, this one worked!
2 WSW Perry OK (15 May 9) Looking SW
36.2752, -97.3288