Before losing direct sunlight altogether, a gloriously lit field of post-MCS mammatus clouds in northern Missouri evolved from orange to deep rust-red—a shade I haven't seen often, even in sunset skies. As the storm complex responsible for this brilliant backside scene progressed southeastward in the twilight, its mammatus field would serve as muse for several photogenic anvil-crawler lightning … [Read more...]
Translucidus without Much Lucidity
This was a long chase day, having begun in Chadron, NE, with lunch in Rapid City, and a storm complex intercepted from the Wyoming/South Dakota border through the Badlands. It ended with peace and fulfillment, before a short drive to Chamberlain for the night. After letting the complex pass over me in the Badlands, I eased east to Murdo to fuel up, then headed south of town a short distance, … [Read more...]
Dakota behind the Storms
Sunset hour on the Great Plains of South Dakota had multiple magical moments packed into one sublime experience. After a glorious showing of anticrepusculars and a sepia sky toward the setting sun, the day's last rays got under a deck of altocumulus clouds trailing an thunderstorm complex, and lit up lower fractocumulus scud. The entire time, meadowlarks sang in the cool outflow breezes, and the … [Read more...]
Badlands Blow ’24
While not as extremely intense as the 2020 derecho, the 2024 Badlands complex still produced severe gusts, and an array of dark cloud formations to contrast with the layered and scenic sedimentary colors of the ground here and grass range to the immediate north. Storm wind out here on the dissected High Plains is inhibited only by turbulence from interactions with the hills and gullies. It yield … [Read more...]
Campus Mothership
After approaching Norman from the OKC area with a stacked-plate form and the oft-fulfilled promise of severe hail, the increasingly wild-looking and more sunset-toned storm drew closer, its slowly rotating wall cloud more a product of strongly hail-cooled air from the nearby core. As it passed just north through east of campus, the main updraft region's cloud form assumed a "mothership" … [Read more...]
Sunset Asperatus
Even within one sort (skeletal) of a cloud type (asperatus, a.k.a. asperitas), appearances can differ monumentally from one event to another. Take, for example, this versus only slightly less dense (mode skeletal) coverage of them from a film slide shot a few miles from here at sunrise, 24 years before. The wave amplitude of these is less, but still no less beautiful, especially as a textural … [Read more...]
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