Soon to set behind clouds, some of the last sunshine in the conterminous United States beamed crepuscular rays across the sky, a beautiful backdrop to the sea-stack festooned coastline. For periods a few seconds at a time, a certain stage of wave retreat left a shallow shimmer on the sand, one I'll call mercurial in two contexts: changeability and visual reflectivity. The experience offered a … [Read more...]
Wavy Overhangs
The howling north winds of the previous day's blizzard left stunning snow cornices on the tops of steep, southward-facing slopes, such as the one here abutting a roadside ditch. All sorts of wacky and weird formations are possible when microflows set up around obstacles, such as this partly fallen fencepost that seemingly supported the arching part of the banded cornice formation. Somehow, these … [Read more...]
Wind Farm Tornado: One Turbine Hit
Although this mostly was a ragged multivortex tornado, the Wind Farm Tornado's circulation contained a dominant, central, primarily conical vortex throughout much of its lifespan. Occasional coils and tendrils of suction vortices materialized and vanished on various sides, dancing hither and yon within the tornado cyclone. Here, the main cone (lower left) condensed right on top of a turbine and … [Read more...]
Saturnian Supercell, Northeast South Dakota
After the dissipation of the US-12 supercell, we were left stormless but for a distant area of darkness to our ENE in which radar imagery showed a big, likely heavy-precip supercell. With that being the only reachable option at the time, and a very good east road in front of us, we caught up to this beauty sooner than expected. Though the encounter was brief, we enjoyed immensely the spectacle … [Read more...]
Great Northern Sunset
Another pleasant storm-observing day came to a brilliantly colored close, this time over the fertile flatlands of northeastern North Dakota. This high in latitude, the sun sets well northward in the western sky and late in the day, such that we were fortunate to find the last room in the last available lodging in Grafton (and only fast food for dinner) soon thereafter. 2 SSE Hoople ND (9 Jun … [Read more...]
Vortex Puppetmaster
The tornadic marionette kept twirling, its vortex master flailing assorted spinning plumes of condensation 'round and 'round, 'til finally the show had to end. Beneath the main cone, which changed little in form, subvortex filaments danced, contorted, formed, vanished and spun wildly, all within any given few seconds. 1 SE Hickory OK (21 May 11) Looking NE 34.5418, -96.8488 RADAR … [Read more...]
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