Rules of outdoor photography argue against doing so at midday, especially in summertime when the sun angle is highest. I violate stupid rules. This Rocky Mountain National Park scene of high-noon cumulus humilis, floating placidly through crystalline skies above a highland meadow's mirroring watercourse, was evocative and beautiful regardless of (and I'll argue, partly because of) this light. … [Read more...]
Mammatus over Cheyenne Ridge
As with some of our other most fruitful storm-intercept days, this one featured several supercells and concluded with a wonderful display on the back side of the main area of storms. Quite often, we'll wheel around to the upshear side of storms before sunset, and this is why. The amazing spectacle of sunset mammatus not only illuminated the northeastern sky, but also, reflected tonally warmed … [Read more...]
Three-Way Tornadic Handoff
Even with the obvious tornado at lower right, a great deal more was happening here. The tilted cone tornado was less than 30 seconds old, and soon would grow much larger, to become the "Tipton" event. The old Luray tornado just had dissipated on the southern corner of the distant supercell's updraft area, at far lower left. In between: a short-lived, intermediary, diffuse, yet tornadic … [Read more...]
Luray Tornado’s Demise
We arrived at a known high spot with unfettered western view (Waconda Lake dam) to observe a much-closer, nontornadic, yet tornado-warned supercell moving along a warm front toward Glen Elder. Then in the distant southwest, we noticed this end-stage tornado dangling desperately, and in ultimate futility, from the rear of the trailing supercell's main updraft near Tipton. This turns out to have … [Read more...]
Triangular Supercell
Supercells over the Great Plains can assume some bizarre and magnificent cloud configurations, and this approximate right triangle was one of the oddest yet. The storm still had a robust, if narrow, surface-based inflow region, manifest as a ragged updraft base, somewhat expanded from just 10–15 minutes before, with a tail cloud on the left (southeast) side. That updraft rotated modestly, as the … [Read more...]
Magnificent Travel Impediment
As instinct should tell most commuters, a beautiful cloud formation such as this also signals potential danger to travelers beneath. Indeed, the storm contained severe hail, intense winds, and blinding heavy rain responsible for flooding in and near the Plainview area shortly before. This was a supercell, still rotating in middle levels despite the large load of rain and hail falling from most … [Read more...]
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