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...]
Severy Severe
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...]