The second and last discrete supercell we intercepted in the Upper Delta event produced two brief, small tornadoes for us in a hazy and very moist environment, before racing across the Mississippi River and into Kentucky, on a track just north of the earlier supercell. This was the first of the second supercell's tornadoes. Note the breaks in condensation. The actual tube of tornadic wind was … [Read more...]
Sparky Downburst
An otherwise unremarkable area of thunderstorms produced fascinating sunset beauty for a few minutes over the High Plains of northwestern Kansas, just a couple miles from the Colorado border. A fat downburst plunged from the cloud base, hit ground and spread out across the prairies, with rain feet on both sides and flickers of lightning within for good measure. This wasn't a planned chase day, … [Read more...]
Thai Jungle Waterfall
This is one of several parts of Pha Lat Falls, tumbling over Mississippian-age granite below the 5,499-ft crest of the "Doi Suthep" mountain. The granite was uplifted to the surface, and the forested mountain formed, by southeast fringes of the Himalayan orogeny. Just west of Chiang Mai, the mountain also hosts a famous pilgrimage temple of the same name, though this is much closer to the Pha Lat … [Read more...]
Feast of Flanks
This beautiful supercell peeled off the southern Sangre de Cristos near Springer, as many do in late spring. The storm spun itself southeastward across northeastern New Mexico for over two hours before I even got on it, since I was occupied with another, messier storm near Clayton. When the first storm died, this one was racked up right behind and to the west, making an easy intercept. Not a … [Read more...]
Polluted Bangkok Sunset
An otherwise modest sunset, amid thin cirrus, was made remarkable by the power of pollution: a dense boundary-layer haze common to Bangkok in the dry (winter) season. During this time of year, this massive city gets little rain, with the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) largely occupying the Southern Hemispheric tropics. When not flushed by remnant post-frontal gradient winds coming from … [Read more...]
Windy, Wet Blast
The "blast" part of the title can represent either the CG at right, or the sudden onset of cold wind soon after this shot. A long-lived, fast-moving, highly electrified supercell that started over east Amarillo, ended here, where it gusted out and merged with a larger, growing thunderstorm cluster. In the process, its "whale's mouth" shelf-cloud region contorted into a fascinatingly layered … [Read more...]
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