[Part 1 of 2] Seeing this much brilliance out the west window, on the normally flatter side of sunrise, meant the sky likely was even more amazing on the front side. But first, it was time to capture this moment before the magic faded away. Then, no more than 45 seconds later, the same sunrise painted a much different picture across the eastern sky... [Go to Part 2] Norman OK (7 Dec 21) Looking … [Read more...]
Pastels of the Oklahoma Panhandle
This supercell's long-lasting cavalcade of changing colors reached its visual zenith just before sunset, as the late afternoon rays passed around and through its deep plume of rain and hail. A palette of pastels blended and merged amongst the dynamic airflows of the storm, churning together a multiflavored sorbet for the appreciative eyes. To add still more texture to this visual richness of hue … [Read more...]
Rotating Uncertainties
Even with decades of experience on hundreds of supercells, this was a challenging storm to spot well. After some messy mesocyclonic lowerings (but none I could say were tornadic with certainty) south-southwest of Last Chance, I had to zip up to the crossroads and head east, before the fast-moving mesocyclone and any potential cyclic successor(s) could cut off the turn option. Looking back in the … [Read more...]
Snyder Multivortex: Last View
[Part 2 of 2] Although I have good low-light vision and could see the tornado fairly well, it only had a few distant lightning flashes behind it, in the forward-flank core, to silhouette the features enough for shooting. This was the second and last such opportunity, zoomed in a bit compared to the first shot, before hook-echo precipitation thickened and wrapped around the mesocyclone between me … [Read more...]
Snyder Multivortex in the Dark
[Part 1 of 2] This multiple-vortex circulation, partly silhouetted by distant cloud-to-ground flashes, was the fourth and final tornado from this autumnal supercell. It also was the third I photographed, with the other one being brief, while I was driving. A short-lived but well-defined cone tornado south of US-62 shortly preceded this one. This tornado started out as a faintly visible, slim … [Read more...]
Charged Path Aloft
Only a few inches wide, a filament of current-conducting plasma known as lightning illuminates sky and earth for many miles around. High, horizontal discharges like this frequently occur in the trailing precipitation area of convective complexes. I'm loath to use the term "stratiform" for this process, as is found in many description of this area of thunderstorms, because it is convective in … [Read more...]
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