Plow wind is an archaic rural nickname for strong and severe outflow winds from thunderstorms, especially those that "plow" the dirt into the air, as in this fine example. Such winds aren't restricted just to squall lines or multicell storms. The plow wind here, evident underneath a ragged arcus cloud, was part of a west Texas supercell's rear-flank downdraft. 4 E Knott TX (23 Apr 8) Looking … [Read more...]
Fair View from “Fairview”
The atmosphere rewarded us for a long trip to the southeast edge of the Great Plains, near Big Spring, and all the hassles and expense that came along the way. [A nearby, unincorporated place called "Fairview" is appropriately named, but not the same as the Fairview 300 miles away in Collin County.] We crested a rise with a fantastic overlook, and this storm appeared before us in all its … [Read more...]
Embedded Rotation
A small supercell formed in a pocket of favorably unstable air, right at the southern rim of favorable deep shear, but quickly became nearly surrounded by other storms. Regardless of becoming embedded in a bigger storm cluster, the supercell spun strongly at times in middle levels as seen from faraway radars, and tightened up enough in low levels to produce a brief funnel cloud or two, earning a … [Read more...]
Sunset on the Sojourn
Another storm-observing trip concluded with a marvelous sunset, this time across the northern Texas Panhandle as a complex of storms moved away to the southeast. I have photographed countless hundreds of sunsets, but regardless of their always unique and wondrous visual character, several of the most indelibly memorable were those ending the last chase day of the season. There's a reason for … [Read more...]
Outflow Power
The underside of an arcus cloud shows a classical, characteristic, crumpled shape. These clouds form in turbulent uplift of warm air, which rises over the relatively cold dome of wind hurled earthward by the storm's core. The turbine here faces the wind and reveals its northwesterly direction. Thunderstorm outflow bothers observers at times, but is good news for Texas electricity customers when … [Read more...]
Bighorn Basin Supercell
This was a rare treat: a supercell spinning over northern Wyoming's arid yet starkly beautiful Bighorn Basin. The basin is surrounded on all side by mountains, including the lofty Bighorns to the east, with only a very narrow gap in the north connecting it to the Great Plains of southern Montana. As such, very little precipitation falls here, with storms mostly staying in the mountains or over … [Read more...]
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