Even in its weakening, post-tornado stages, surrounded by other growing convection that soon would absorb it, the Prospect Valley supercell offered one final moment of convective glory with this display of massive, rotating and sharply defined storm towers. After the tornadic mesocyclone weakened, the one to its east rotated nicely but didn't produce, its low levels eroding at left even as the … [Read more...]
Under Wicked Sky
Stormy, turbulent, dark skies—crackling with lightning and moving fast—not only do not bother me, they enchant and enthrall me. Since earliest childhood, before I could remember, I have been attracted in something close to moth-flame fashion to wicked skies that frighten many others. When the daytime turned dark in the city and the ominous explosions of lightning and thunder began booming above … [Read more...]
More Anvil Zits
Two supercells, in close proximity to each other and about 15–20 miles to my NNW–NE, joined forces for a lightning show aloft that was not to be forgotten by those of us who sat on that big signal hill E of Anadarko to watch the sky erupt. The flurry was so furious that 24-mm wide-angle exposures averaged more than a flash every second, without fail. Relentless and continuous discharges flung … [Read more...]
Spider Lightning
Filamentous lightning that visibly spreads out beneath a storm's anvil canopy is known as anvil crawlers, or "spider lightning". Here, the latter moniker is more appropriate than usual, given the arachnid geometry of the discharge. This electricity burst forth in quick shots downshear from a supercell that was being overtaken by a bow echo. Individual lightning tendrils spread much more … [Read more...]
Two Tails
Every supercell intercept offers something at least a little different about storm behavior and structure. Here, the storm had a common but still nicely defined tail cloud extending rearward of its "flanking line"; inflow parcels there rose upward on a low slope, beneath a weak capping inversion, then reached the bulk of updraft mass which forced them above the level of free convection. … [Read more...]
Bright Night
If it weren't for the underexposed appearance of the ground, this scene almost glows like daytime. Instead, multiple channels of lightning coursed through the thick middle-upper level cloud deck trailing a small, nocturnal thunderstorm complex, brilliantly illuminating sky and land. The ground wasn't so underexposed after all! Some of the "anvil crawlers" can be seen at moderately distant left … [Read more...]
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