The majestic Snæfellsness Peninsula, known as "Iceland in miniature", offers astounding vistas around every turn, including this west-facing shore lining a bay between ranges of green hills. Volcanic black-sand beaches ring Iceland and enrich shoreline scenes in virtually infinite ways, especially in this late-day "magic hour" of light. Less than two hundred miles in the direction of that … [Read more...]
Mono Fractal
Tufa towers on California's Mono Lake stand above the alkaline waters that once submerged them, allowing their development in the first place. The tufa formed where relatively fresh springs entered a lake rich with carbonates and other alkali, depositing calcium carbonate (hard lime) as a result. With time this process built the towers higher underwater until either the springs' pipes became … [Read more...]
Volcanic Steam Eruption
Mount Saint Helens had been spitting steam and minor quantities of ash for several months at the time of this photo, while growing a prominent lava dome in the crater left behind by the famous 1980 eruption. Melting snow, seeping through fissures in the ash and lava, supplied water for this steam column rising off the crest of the lava dome. Here, a small finger of newly airborne ash also is … [Read more...]
High Plains Mammatus
Rain-soaked grasslands and cumulonimbus mammatus frame a rainbow. Mammati are high level cloud formations dangling from beneath the anvil canopy of some thunderstorms, and sometimes, not caused by a thunderstorm at all. They are harmless and do not produce funnel clouds or tornadoes. Scenes like this are what make storm watching on the Great Plains so rewarding—even when there is no severe … [Read more...]
Wall Cloud in No-Man’s Land
Most wall clouds do not produce tornadoes, including this scenic Oklahoma Panhandle specimen. Every wall cloud must be closely watched and reported by spotters, though. Here, precipitation curtains can be seen wrapping around the rear (W) side; but the wall cloud only rotated slowly before being undercut by wet outflow. Without strong storm inflow winds, high-based supercells like this will … [Read more...]
7-11 Lightning: Strike Five
Just a simple multicell storm this was, with an outsized capacity to fire high-amperage jolts for great distances in several directions! I called this the "7-11 Lightning" series because that was the date, and also because I took a really "big gulp" when seeing this awesome blast of electricity flung miles outward from the little storm that created it. Norman, OK (11 Jul 13) Looking … [Read more...]
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