This vintage shot, from Provia slide film, shows a night view of a tornadic supercell's vault region—near the interface between main updraft tower and downshear precipitation area—bathed in continuous lightning. The cyclonically curved mid-level bands (middle right) arc inward toward the storm, while the flared, laminar low level cloud deck (lower left) marks the east edge of the main … [Read more...]
Silhouetted Towering Cumulus
Nearby thunderstorm towers (behind the view) shadowed a thick, nearly symmetric, mound-shaped, towering cumulus formation, silhouetted against the background of another storm's higher cloud mass, for an interesting, high-contrast effect. The storm behind us evolved into a respectable supercell. This was one of those grand afternoons afield when fascinating features periodically pockmarked the … [Read more...]
Saw Blade Penetration
This image illustrates why a tornado endangers the human body. Fortunately the tree, instead of someone's face, intercepted this deadly missile. Tornadoes in more densely populated areas are basically enormous blenders, churning tons of broken glass, tools, nails, boards, bricks, pipes, sheet metal, kitchen knives, wire and all manner of other shrapnel, at speeds up to 300 mph. Flying debris, … [Read more...]
Sharp Golden Core
Sharp-edged and glowing golden in the late afternoon, the forward-flank core of a supercell cast filtered sunlight not only on our retinas and the camera sensor, but in diffusely reflected form, off the intervening cloud material of the northern updraft rim. We had waited at this location for over an hour before storm genesis, anticipating development near the intersection of a warm-sector … [Read more...]
“Lava-ly” Landscape
This landscape, beautiful in a harsh and barren way, looks utterly inhospitable to anything but viewing from a safe vantage. Yet underneath lies the cooked remains of part of the former Kalapana Gardens neighborhood, deeply buried by Kilauea's East Rift Zone lava in 1990, with fresh coats applied in 2010 and again in the last few years. The deposit here was part of the final months of "61g", … [Read more...]
Sandhill Cranes in Auburn Sky
Tinted skies of the sunrise hour host a rising streamer of sandhill cranes, outbound from their overnight riparian roost to the nutritious cornfields detritus of Nebraska's Platte Valley. This was our first visit to the astounding spectacle that is hundreds of thousands of cranes rising from the river every morning and descending again by nightfall, their ancient calls filling the air in all … [Read more...]
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