Happy birthday to me! This was the second, and most photogenic, of at least three tornadoes that I witnessed from a supercell interacting with an outflow boundary--my first birthday tornadoes in over a quarter-century of active storm observing. It was no easy feat, either, given the hilly and sometimes forested terrain of this part of southeastern Oklahoma. Fortunately, we found an open-field … [Read more...]
Wichita Mountains Rainbow
Whilst navigating between two supercells to get to a more distant (but better-organized) third, I could not help but pull off to photograph this wonderful scene, a quintessential view of southwestern Oklahoma, unfolding over the semicircular mass of granite that gives that town its name. Soon I would see five tornadoes, and this was the second of them. 3 W Granite OK (7 Nov 11) Looking … [Read more...]
Lakeshore Vent: Big Cone
A sinter cone brightly and markedly contrasts with the elements above: a clean, deep blue, post-thunderstorm sky, and shallow water of a turquoise hue common to the tropics but seldom conceived of a high-latitude, high-altitude lake. This geyser-built formation known as Big Cone rarely erupts and is feeble when it does. It isn't as (in)famous in lore as the nearby Lake Shore Geyser or Fishing … [Read more...]
Abandoned Playhouse under Deep Cumulus
On the grasslands of northwestern Nebraska, an abandoned stand-alone theater slowly fades, destined to crumble into the prairie soil. On this fine day, however, it still stood nobly, both sturdy and frail, having withstood many blizzards, hailstorms and that relentless Great Plains wind. Overhead, a mix of cumulus mediocris, towering cumulus, fractocumulus and a distant, small cumulonimbus … [Read more...]
Across State Line
A classic supercell erupted during mid-afternoon on the Laramie Mountains of Wyoming. That was in the farthest corner of my forecast target area from where we originated that morning—Hays, KS! For safety I needed to sleep in late after being up 36 hours straight the prior day, coming off a night shift. Given that situation, Elke and I considered it almost miraculous to have seen this tornado at … [Read more...]
Balloon Sun
At this brief moment, the sun's light penetrates the greatest possible amount of atmospheric fluid possible for direct viewing. This is a good thing, of course, in that all that air acts as a great filter, protecting our eyeballs from damage during one of the two times of day (sunrise being the other) when we can peer directly at our nearest star. With the sunset against a flat … [Read more...]
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