Intercepting a supercell in mid-August in New Mexico—why not? While wrapping up a southwestern storm, photo and hiking trip, I noticed that a narrow, mesoscale belt of enhanced mid/upper-level northwesterly winds, southwest of a shortwave trough over the central Plains, would pass across this part of the state during the afternoon. My first August supercell on the Great Plains did not … [Read more...]
Don’t Fence Me In!
This northwest-flow supercell formed just a few miles to my west in the Sangre de Cristo foothills, while I was pumping gas in Springer. This made the target storm self-evident. After peeling of the mountains, it churned along a 5-hour southeastward odyssey toward Tucumcari, offering occasionally marvelous looks not normally expected from New Mexico in August. Here, a downburst and accompanying … [Read more...]
Sparks over New Mexico Ranch
Where the High Plains meet the extinct volcanoes of northeastern New Mexico, an electrified sky crackled its warning of impending danger to outdoor safety, while also offering a welcomed message: notice of soaking rain for a thirsty landscape. The wind-beaten old cottonwood tree likely owes its lifespan to overflow and leaks from the windmill's water-storage tank. 6 SE Grenville NM (30 Jul 17) … [Read more...]
Nevada Forks
An evening desert storm, riding the last ribbons of a shrinking band of monsoonal easterlies, flings forked jabs of deadly electricity over the skies of extreme southeastern Nevada. I had been hoping for more action in central and southern Arizona—the prototypical monsoon-storm hotbed. Instead, an expanding swath of low/middle-level westerlies cut off substantial thunderstorm production a day … [Read more...]
Desert Reflectives
On this two-week trip I went on several exhaustingly high and/or long hikes far from roads, yet one of my favorite scenes arose utterly unplanned and unanticipated, within a stone's throw of a highway, and a short stroll down a dirt path. The lesson: be open to wonderment and marvelous experiences, regardless of "ease" of access. Surprisingly, nobody else was out shooting or admiring this … [Read more...]
Total Solar Eclipse 2017
At age six, looking at a map of future solar totalities in the World Book Encyclopedia, I had the High Plains part of the path in the crosshairs. Elke and I each have been waiting our whole lives for this, decades since childhood, so it's fitting that we did it together. After a lifetime, we finally witnessed one of the most intensely spiritual and moving natural phenomena to be found. Thank … [Read more...]
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