Viewing the "Slapout tornado's" surroundings at wide angle reveals an arcus cloud on the right side (NNW of the tornado), which actually was the rear-flank gust front for a large, newer, rain-wrapped mesocyclone forming unseen to our W (off the screen to the right). The whole scene looks rather "gust-fronty". Indeed, if we do out best to mentally subtract a tornado from view (i.e., put your … [Read more...]
Lake Perryton
No, this isn't one of those classical arcus-cloud scenes from somewhere around the Rio de la Plata in South America. Instead, it's the high, normally dry Texas Panhandle! As if a previous day of excessive rains in an already-wet spring weren't enough, yet another thunderstorm loomed with its shelf cloud, ready to drench this stretch of farmland. Is Lake Perryton real? Not on any maps, it … [Read more...]
Snow Geese in the Rain
During the "magic hour" of late-afternoon light, a small flock of snow geese and countless raindrops, near and far, imparted an oil-painting-like texture to the wondrous scene along the back side of a band of rain. These and another half million of their closest friends and relatives (geese and cranes) converge annually upon the Platte River Valley of central Nebraska—one of the world's great … [Read more...]
Blizzard at My Back
Yes, I was out in a full-fledged blizzard with gusts to 60 mph, barely able to stand, bracing with back into wind, shooting away. It wasn't balmy outside. Fortunately, I was dressed in more layers than a Vidalia onion, looking much like the Michelin Man, and didn't have to go too far to get into warm shelter. Freezing in real life and frozen in time, snowflakes that flew past at speeds of 40–60 … [Read more...]
Congestus at Sunset
About an hour and a half before this scene, a heavy-precipitation (HP) supercell passed over the semiarid southwest Texas scrubland below, dropping large hail and copious rainfall, unleashing flash floods, and leaving behind a dense puddle of cold outflow air that covered thousands of square miles. Above all that mayhem and residue billowed a fresh new development: a towering updraft that … [Read more...]
Cloud-to-Air Discharge
This is a twilight shot of a big, bright, forked, cloud-to-air lightning bolt originating in the vault of a supercell—in this case, an area just NE of the main updraft—an elevated region of rain and large hail occupying the large notch between updraft and downshear anvil. Intense charge separation happens in this part of supercells, where a large mix of precipitation particles cascades off the … [Read more...]
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