Flint Hills time is good time spent—here, quality over quantity. Alas, we were in the area only a short bit, thanks to fading twilight and hunger for dinner in nearby Topeka, where we had reserved rooms after a fruitful round of tornado observing to the west, earlier in the day. Sequential attempts to intercept additional supercells—storms that had developed farther east and south in the growing … [Read more...]
Storm on the Range
Cresting the last of the big high spots and roadcuts on US-87, before plunging down-valley toward Grass Range, revealed an awesome early-afternoon sight of great promise, only available in brief, truncated glimpses beforehand. This fine young supercell had erupted over the Judith Mountains northeast of Lewistown, headed for the open grasslands that gave the nearest town its name. Its … [Read more...]
Midday Colorado Supercell
What an active storm day this was! Nationally, dozens of tornadoes marked a "Corn Belt outbreak" from Colorado to the Ohio Valley, including a deadly and very destructive one that night near Dayton, OH. Personally I saw four supercells and at least three tornadoes in northeastern Colorado, between Denver and the inner corner of Nebraska. The adventure began with this midday beauty: a … [Read more...]
Rotating over Mesa Country
On the last day of my "normal" spring chase trip, one final supercell spun up along the intersection of outflow boundaries, over west-central New Mexico's mesalands. Promising as this scene may be, it represented the storm's peak; for soon it would ingest too much outflow air and wither slowly, while scooting eastward. Were it not for an unexpectedly active bonus pattern for northern Plains … [Read more...]
Sunset Saguaro Scene
Saguaro cacti, including one quite lofty, stately specimen, frame a brilliant sunset-lit core of rain over distant mountains, as seen from Saguaro National Park. At right, one sees a thin, orange-lit plume of virga—precipitation not reaching the ground (yet). A mature saguaro with more than one arm probably is in the 125–150-year-old range. The tall one here could be older, dating from well … [Read more...]
Cumulus Spotlight
One haggard clump of shallow convective clouds floated across the eastern Colorado sky behind a complex of thunderstorms. Being rather moisture-starved, these cumulus clouds entrained a good deal of dry air from their surroundings and sported ragged edges and holes—the most prominent of which cast a beam of sunlight directly at our spot for just a few seconds. An assortment of crepuscular rays … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 168
- 169
- 170
- 171
- 172
- …
- 385
- Next Page »