One of Iceland’s many iconic waterfalls, Svartifoss might have the most peculiar framing: a natural amphitheater of vertical basalt columns, geologically arranged like organ pipes. Such mostly hexagonal columns form in cooling, contracting lava bodies not far underground. Erosion later exhumes them for us to admire, and for water, wind and ice to erode further. The world’s largest example of … [Read more...]
Thunder Music
Within just a few seconds, the trailing precipitation region of a growing thunderstorm complex shot forth all of this: a distant cloud-to-ground (CG) strike, a closer, intricately forked CG, and several crawler strands at varying heights and distances. All the electricity elicited a mesmerizing, almost pulsating tune of thunder for around 20 seconds -- something hauntingly close to a melody that … [Read more...]
Textured Lakeside Sunrise
What a deliciously complex sunrise this was. Clouds of every form and level, superimposed and juxtaposed, low, middle and high, reflected and refracted across the palette of hues. That light, in turn, rippled in fluid flickers off short-period waves of the lake, blown by a weakening outflow breeze. Mammatus and residual virga lingered from a formerly strong cluster of thunderstorms that had … [Read more...]
Welcome to Montana
Standing just a brief sprint inside Montana from the Wyoming line, I found a fitting foreground for a wet classic supercell astride the two states' border. The storm raced east-southeastward at over 50 mph from its early stages over extreme southern Montana, across the northeastern corner of Wyoming and into western South Dakota, ensuring my stay at this landmark (and any given stop along the … [Read more...]
Cottonwood Shelf: North View
[Part 3 of 3] This had all the signs of a spectacular but dangerous storm complex, with deeply embedded and large mesocyclone, flash flooding, severe wind, and hail, of the sort much better appreciated from the outside than within. This multiply tiered arcus, front-lit by indirect and warming sunlight tones from the east, posed nicely for the camera before roaring off to the east (right) and … [Read more...]
Cottonwood Shelf: Middle View
[Part 2 of 3] Seen head-on, the Cottonwood, SD shelf cloud looked like a strange sandwich of light, dark, and shades of beige and slate, with a hint of turquoise in the core dappled in for good measure. I've witnessed this lighting before, but seldom so vivid. As often is the case with late-afternoon, front-lit outflow features, I was wishing I had more time to stay there and appreciate the … [Read more...]
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