On a rollicking fun day for supercell structure, this was a mighty fine moment. Turquoise hues peek through the interface between a very dense forward-flank precipitation core (right) and the north wall of the updraft, above a tail cloud that extends back into the core. This rumbling specimen of rotating beauty was dropping severe hail over Severy, KS, hence the alliterative title atop. 4 E … [Read more...]
Texas Thunderhead
This explosion of Lone Star convective power dominated the southern sky, partly making me dream I were beneath, but ultimately keeping me glad to see such an impressive thunderhead unfold from this vantage. This storm thrust skyward a gigantic convective mass spreading far above the level of the cumulonimbus anvil that was backshearing toward the near right (WNW). The sheer volume of overshooting … [Read more...]
The Majestic Supercell
Impaled Palm
A 1X4 board penetrated the upper part of a royal palm, leading to one of my most prized and popular photos. Hurricane Andrew impaled the plank due E-W through the axis of the trunk, which was not significantly twisted. The palm almost certainly bent diagonally at a steep angle in eyewall winds analyzed at around 120 knots in the area--meaning that the board was either propelled downward and … [Read more...]
Roswell Mothership
When storm enthusiasts discuss such a fantastically supercellular sky, the word mothership often tumbles reverently through quivering lips. In this place, it has a little more meaning. Perhaps, when concerned citizens near Roswell saw oddly shaped, huge circular apparitions aloft that seemed positively alien in character, their gaze instead fell upon a colossal, chiseled, rotary cloud form such … [Read more...]
Geothermal Fog
On an already cool, damp day, it takes very little extra moisture to obscure the field of view. In this case, the source was a steam vent in the Gunnuhver geothermal area, its well-defined plume of effluent wafting across the land to create this extraordinary visibility gradient at the surface. This doesn't fit the commonly known fog types: radiation, advection, or precipitation. Instead it is … [Read more...]