We were admiring a fine-enough supercell in the western sky when—lo and behold!—I spied out of the left peripheral vision a sight not seen before. Riding along the top of the westward-feeding low-level inflow band was a horseshoe vortex (far middle left), a slowly rotating cloud tube formed from shear-induced stretching of vortex lines. Vorticity already is relatively maximized in these bands, … [Read more...]
Keystone Shelf
It was no time for casual crappie jiggin' in the flooded trees. Formerly a supercell, this storm was overtaken by the southern end of a strengthening squall line as its outflow and shelf cloud surged toward the western reaches of an overfilled, muddy Keystone Lake. The spring-green forest, flooded by water laden with red-brown clay, and the ominous slate-gray hues of the approaching storm, … [Read more...]
Sherbet Sky
A small, soft-looking storm over the high desert (6,700-ft ground elevation) didn't promise much photogenic action—until sunset! Enough low clouds were in the way that when the hidden mid and upper levels of the storm's convective cloud plume started to light up with sunset color, it diffused downward in pastel through much of the sky and onto the surrounding landscape. Then, for a fleeting … [Read more...]
Outflow Spark
Most of my first-ever "monsoon chase" trip in 2017 was inactive storm-wise, save the first three and last three days. However, the storms that did happen and the days between, spent in the amazing Utah and northern Arizona national parks, made it all worthwhile. This final storm of the trip had been a photogenic supercell that became elevated atop outflow from a complex to the northeast. That … [Read more...]
Upstream from Angel’s Landing
To arrive here, one must hike a series of switchbacks adding up to 2.5 miles and 1500 vertical feet each way from the Virgin River, or a total of 5 miles and 3,000 vertical feet. Parts of the hike ain't easy, traversing slick, tilted, sand-covered rock slopes bracketed by thousand-foot dropoffs within just a few feet distance on either side (or sometimes both sides at once). Needless to say, the … [Read more...]
Mountainside Jolts
Surrounded on three sides by intermittently sparky thunderstorms but with none decisively better, I had a pick of possibilities for capturing lightning. After turning camera attention toward a fresh core dump starting to sweep across the mountainsides to the south, the storm temporarily and inexplicably quietened. It was hard to keep aiming this way while teaser flashes kept blasting forth to … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 248
- 249
- 250
- 251
- 252
- …
- 385
- Next Page »