[Part 2 of 2] While posing for my slide camera, a classic, Colorado High Plains supercell proceeded eastward, deeper into both the late-afternoon light and a gradually stabilizing boundary layer. The latter, as often happens, led to a smoother, more-striated appearance as the storm's internal low-pressure circulation (mesocyclone) forced that cooler inflow air upward. For just a little while, … [Read more...]
Colorado High Plains Supercell
[Part 1 of 2] The striated, high-based supercell is a Great Plains trademark, and this wonderful specimen from 1998 was one of my early introductions to their captivating splendor. The drier, cleaner air masses on the High Plains keep low- and middle-level obscuring clouds from forming, stripping storms down to their sculpted, skeletal splendor. This was definitely a storm with which I could … [Read more...]
Hoover Dam: Summer Day
Hoover Dam is nearly as much a marvel of engineering today as when it was finished in 1936—a 726-foot-high arch-gravity structure with a volume of 3-1/4 million cubic yards. The design efficiently transfers the water pressure's force into the canyon walls, which consist of relatively young (Miocene), pink to buff and mauve-colored volcanic tuffs. Hydroelectric power sales subsidize dam … [Read more...]
Another Fine Season Finale
A high-based, weakly rotating low-precip (LP) supercell that had a golden lining now was set aglow with deepening reds from top to bottom, capping off one of my finest storm seasons. [Or so I thought at the time...but who imagined there would be a photogenic tornado event the following October?] By this time, the short-lived but intense central Oklahoma drought had set in. Rain was scant and … [Read more...]
Some Clouds Have a Golden Lining
Here is yet another amendment to the popular saying! The lowering sun's rays assume more yellow hues as they pass through a larger section of the earth's atmosphere. This filters out light from the blue end of the visible spectrum, leaving predominant yellows, then reds, as the sun sets. The high-based cumulonimbus (thunderhead) here was weakly rotating and LP (low precipitation) in character, … [Read more...]
Lower Pillar and Subsun
On a loopy aerial approach to Indianapolis airport. this excellent example of a lower sun pillar, with embedded "subsun", became visible in fine ice-crystal clouds. The optical phenomenon was very bright in mid–late morning of late winter, and I had to expose for it at the expense of the snow-covered subdivisions below. Full sun pillars extend below the sun as well, when the atmosphere (instead … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 151
- 152
- 153
- 154
- 155
- …
- 424
- Next Page »