Hail, lightning, tornadoes (all of which this storm had produced): they're certainly interesting and exciting aspects of storm observing across the Great Plains. Yet scenes like this often conjure many of my fondest memories of any given storm-observing trip or season. The supercell—still sporting a well-developed and partly sunlit wall cloud—was "getting away" across a large road void, and I … [Read more...]
Glacial Breaks
Looming high above and beyond the alpine coniferous treeline, the massive bulk of Mount Rainier hosts thick, active glaciers. These slabs of ice flow, crack, tumble, and otherwise push inexorably down the steep slopes of the big volcano, carrying with them strips of embedded rock and gravel scoured off the mountain. It’s no surprise Rainier wears such a thick veneer of ice, as it thrusts over … [Read more...]
Springtime Afternoon, Northern Kansas
Springtime in Kansas sometimes brings days like this. A growling, stormy sky cast deepening shadow across the rolling prairie before revealing a dangerous bite to back up its bark. Had the "Tipton" tornado kept on its original northeastward track, especially with a northward late-lifespan turn common to longer-lived tornadoes, it would have moved very close to this spot. Fortunately for anyone … [Read more...]
Into the Notch
This isn't just a weird and ominous-looking High Plains thunderstorm. You're staring right down the "notch" of a supercell unlike most found in weather textbooks and photo sites. This one developed within a loose band of convection, and remained what we often call a "line-embedded supercell" for most of its lifespan. The storm had a standout reflectivity and velocity presentation as a supercell … [Read more...]
Rainy Spark
Following a long and rather disappointing daytime chase with fuzzy, poorly structured, generally non-photogenic storms, it was tempting to just throw in the towel, get an early take-out dinner, let the nighttime accumulation of storms pass eastward from the relative comfort of my motel room, and rest up for whatever may await the next day. Instead, a sweet visual dessert of lightning beckoned on … [Read more...]
Tornado with Subvortex Filaments
A wide-angle film slide shows a classic Oklahoma tornado moving ENE toward the Cimarron River south of Dover. Note the skirt of scud wrapping into it at cloud base, and the well-defined slot of brightness to its upper right (to its NW). So-called "clear slots" like this—which often are just less cloudy—are common with tornadoes from classic supercells. They evaporate out of the clouds in … [Read more...]
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