After dazzling sunrise light at higher cloud levels, I drove the short distance across this arm of Lake Thunderbird to witness the arrival of a small line of storms whose middle to upper cloud decks produced the earlier color. A brief, elevated circulation formed along the leading edge after the gust front had passed. Then the trailing, multiply tiered shelf cloud followed suit, itself now … [Read more...]
Atlanta Supercell
After leaving an HP supercell farther north that morphed into a nasty, fast-moving "stormzilla", this smaller, more-classical, less-stressful storm swirled obliquely out of northern Oklahoma and across the level limestone prairie near Atlanta, KS—between Wichita and Osage County. The window of opportunity to see and gratefully appreciate this marvelously complex, skeletal structure was … [Read more...]
Morning Squall Line Circulation
Following a beautiful sunrise, I made the short drive to the other side of the lake to watch a line of thunderstorms move in. Remarkably resembling that of a small supercell, a distinct updraft base decorated the front side of a broken squall line surging southeastward toward me. The perceived supercellular resemblance had some merit, as the cloud base slowly rotated, bringing to mind the … [Read more...]
Flaming Scud, Northern Appalachians
Fast-moving stratocumulus and fractocumulus clouds followed a cold front accelerated by the gradient flow around the west side of extratropically transitioning Hurricane Fiona, landfalling over 200 miles to the east in Nova Scotia. The Green Mountains, part of the northern Appalachians, silhouetted their sunset glow. A faint, iridescent segment appears above and beyond the main scud pile. 3 W … [Read more...]
Atmospheric Underglow
Underglow more commonly is known from the social-vanity phenomenon of strapping L.E.D. strands on the underbellies of cars to make the street light up. However, the atmosphere can do it to, in a bass-ackwards way. It helps hugely to have a large water body beneath! Here, following a gorgeous sunrise, the show wasn't done. After the sun has disappeared behind the cloud edge from our viewing … [Read more...]
Surf Crash Foam
On a grander scale, this sea-foam eruption looked remarkably symmetric, thanks to a horseshoe-shaped "blowhole" in the igneous rock that redirected certain directions of incoming waves skyward in magnificent turbulence. Closer examination of this high-speed freeze-shot reveals randomly bent expulsions, tangled strands interspersed with detached and freely flying fluid spheres, a unique pattern … [Read more...]
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