No, this isn't about the noxious clouds from a butt, but instead a cloud resembling one! Clouds can take on many fascinating, lifelike shapes. The double-cheeked mammatus protrusion at middle right, conveniently spotlit by a ray of sunset, so strongly mimicked the shape of a human posterior that I just had to take its picture. Mammatus clouds, of course, are named (via a Latin root) after … [Read more...]
Retreating Mammatus over the National Weather Center
Spreading northwestward from momentum faster than the upper level flow could offset, the collective anvil shield of a few supercells spread over the area, decorated with mammatus pouches. By this time, the entire complex had begun retreating away, the mammatus field still reflecting the muted twilight glow of a western sky tinted by the hidden sun. In the distance, a well-timed, cloud-to-ground … [Read more...]
Popping a Mountainside
On this first evening of monsoon storms in southern Arizona, I didn't have much luck remotely shooting lightning amidst reddening sunset light from a western core. So, after seeing a bright flash behind me, reflected off the inside of the car where I was sheltering, I got out quickly and turned things around. Not much lightning happened this direction in-frame, but what did occur was a doozy. … [Read more...]
Sticknet to the Outflow
A "sticknet" probe sampled the last few minutes of southerly pre-storm breezes blowing off the waving field of wheat, before its anemometer would get whipped furiously to a right angle by the intense gust front approaching in the background. This was one of several portable, rapid-deployment weather stations of its kind placed alongside the highway to sample the gust front and subsequent … [Read more...]
Glorious Sunset on Multiple Levels
Even on the High Plains, it's hard to find truly remote and essentially unpopulated areas of silence, solace and solitude, where the only noises other than the cool, moist breeze and one's own breathing are the occasional calls of the meadowlarks and distant coyotes. This was one such moment, set among the wondrous aroma of moistened earth in a climatologically dry place. No other vehicles or … [Read more...]
Emulating a White Sands Night
This starkly desolate view could be from an alien planet of extreme cold, where the "sand" is water ice or frozen CO2 grains piled into dunes. It could be our own White Sands National Monument under moonlight. The latter is closer to the truth, but not quite there. Since I couldn't go on a brightly moonlit night, I took advantage of the fortuitous opportunity to emulate that condition. How? … [Read more...]
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