A classical towering cumulus (meteorological acronym: TCu, as opposed to TCU the university) shoots skyward in a low-level convergence zone connecting other, larger areas of convection. Storm observers who can see through towers don't assign them much of a future, and for good reason; they are entraining dry air aloft. Still, the shifting crepuscular rays helped to make the scene splendid as we … [Read more...]
Park Underwater
When the floodwaters rose fast that Sunday morning in Story City, its riverside park and golf course became its river-bottom park and golf course. The floating garbage container only hints at the messy, long and arduous cleanup that awaits after an event like this, where the disaster doesn't end for a long time after the waters recede. Story City IA (8 Jun 8) Looking WNW 42.1877, -93.5814 … [Read more...]
Judith Gap Lightning
Otherwise rather nondescript due to a mess of intervening low clouds, this marginal supercell embedded in a cluster of storms made itself stand out from the convective crowd by flinging bright, hot bolts across the central Montana countryside. The mass of storms soon would heave a severe slab of outflow wind across the Little Snowy Range to the northeast, then right down into Lewistown. 1 SSW … [Read more...]
Turbulent Textures
Bane of tornado-centric storm hunters, outflow nonetheless can yield amazing visual and sensory experiences. The turbulent underbelly of arcus clouds--often nicknamed the "whale's mouth"--offers a fascinating visual cacophony of deeply granular cloud motions, the textures of which change continually. With a cool wind blowing at my back, and lightning-suffused core still several miles distant, … [Read more...]
Ice Beach
Icebergs of varying sizes float from the freshwater Jokulsarlon lagoon through a tidal outlet to the Atlantic Ocean, whose surf soon deposits them on the nearby black-sand beach strewn with wave-smoothed igneous cobbles. Regardless of time of day, it's a striking scene, and one unfamiliar to most of us from the lower latitudes. 7 SW Reynivellir, Iceland (18 Aug 14) Looking E 64.0396, -16.1846 … [Read more...]
Seljalandsfoss Windbow
Recipe for wondrous delight: Take one of the most captivating waterfalls in the world and add wind--specifically, a very strong, gale-force, southwest wind--and behold the vast and elegantly tempestuous spectacle of spray from a place of stable standing. We visited Seljalandsfoss thrice, each time witnessing a new facet to its personality. This certainly was the wildest. At the top, some of … [Read more...]