Rising from the tangled mess of an ice storm, this creepy tree assumes a menacing pose, as if a predatory monster looming overhead, ready to snatch us up and commit unspoken and unspeakable evil. Fortunately for nightmare-prone children the world over, this tree remained exactly as it looked, frozen in place, with the glint of sunlight refracting through the icy crust encasing every twig, … [Read more...]
KC Mammatus Returns
Almost a year after the skies of downtown Kansas City treated me to their first show of supercell-spawned mammatus clouds, this encore presentation proved history can repeat. The situation was a little different, with an HP (heavy-precip) supercell WSW of town instead of NW, but the photography location, cloud type, storm type, solar time and bedazzlement factor all were identical. Kansas City MO … [Read more...]
Stratocumulus Billows
Undulating ripples, regularly spaced and orderly, seem out of place in a chaotic atmosphere. They're fairly common, though! Billow clouds can form at many different levels in the troposphere, and are related to wind shear. Here, the stratocumulus undulatus billows were trapped under a low-level temperature inversion. The cloudy areas represent weak rising motion of a sheet of air, condensing … [Read more...]
Unintended Lake
For over two hours, heavy-precipitation cores trained along the southern hills overlooking Chadron, and the water had to go somewhere. Much of it ended up flowing right down across town, ponding up in level areas like this. Somehow I suspect that utility box at left was non-functional at this moment. Chadron, NE (21 Jun 13) Looking SSE 42.8284, -103.0136 … [Read more...]
Flying under the Base
Flying directly beneath a big base of an growing cumulonimbus is not something I recommend, because of the potential for both updraft turbulence and an unforeseen downburst. However, this attempt was remarkably smooth on approach to the airport, and offered a seldom-experienced perspective of a building thunderstorm. over Fort Lauderdale, FL (18 Jul 14) Looking N … [Read more...]
When Thunderstorms Collide
What can happen when 2 thunderstorms join? A laminar, striated arcus cloud and some powerful fireworks! There is a lot of great storm-scale meteorology in this picture. Note how the cloud base of the storm at left is forced upward, parallel to and above the arcus cloud. The arcus condenses in moist air being smoothly lifted above outflow expelled by an unseen storm off to the right. The beauty of … [Read more...]
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