The beauty of the wildflower-carpeted rolling Great Plains belied the violence of the messy supercell crossing the distance from right to left, at high velocity. This post-cold-frontal storm moved from north-central Wyoming into southwestern South Dakota and increasing moisture, aiding and abetting a fast-moving, outflow surfing, rotating hail machine, with severe gusts to boot. The front-flank … [Read more...]
Twin Vault Blast
Though similar in brightness, distance and shape, these flashes aren't identical, so we'll call them fraternal twins. By the time we arrived at this vantage to shoot lightning, what had been a skinny, poorly organized, young supercell at sunset had latched onto the low-level jet and its associated high-helicity inflow layer. That fattened the storm a great deal and made it destructively severe, … [Read more...]
New Year’s Dawn in Snow
Accumulating snows don't happen every winter in these parts, so even after all this time, it's still a novel notion for this man born of lower latitudes to explore them, my aversion to the cold temporarily set aside. The very wet, heavy snowfall adhered not only to the ground, but to the windward (north) sides of trees and buildings like this. The scene after a night shift reminded me of … [Read more...]
Little Contrail
Not all nice sunsets require layers of textured high clouds lit dazzlingly from beneath. This was one of my favorites for its clean, balanced simplicity, punctuated by that fleeting moment when the plane passed directly astern of the setting sun. The slightly dusty post-dryline air subtly diffused colors in ways not often seen in these parts. As a bonus, I was treated to well-lit thunderheads … [Read more...]
Crown of Glow
This was an evening full of pleasant visual surprises, capped (no pun intended) by this last magical touch of sunset glow atop towering cumulus. I have always loved the contrast in hue between the warm pastels of the last rays of the sun, the dimming blues of the background sky, and the muted grays in convective towers beneath. A series of these towers extended southwestward along a dryline from a … [Read more...]
Side Cascade, Gljufurarfoss
Gljúfurárfoss tumbles off the same cliffside as the better-known Seljalandsfoss, and a few hundred yards away. This isn’t even its main falls, which tumble into a hidden rock chute and slot canyon, but a wondrous little side discharge framed by lush vegetation and adding to the overall spillage. Iceland contains countless many such watery marvels! 1 N Seljaland, Iceland (16 Aug 14) Looking … [Read more...]
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