A few days before, I had lost a cherished storm-observing vehicle to a huge buck in eastern Colorado. Unhurt from the wreck, but more than a little sore at having missed a couple nice Great Plains tornado days while stuck in the cold rain of Denver waiting for a rental to become available, I trudged home on this day...just in time to catch this consolation prize: heavy-precipitation (HP) … [Read more...]
Two Windows past Grainfield
Near-sunset light streamed through all of many gaps in the main house of a long-abandoned northwestern Kansas homestead. Where children sang along to the early days of radio, or their dad whistled or mom hummed a tune while doing their chores, the only music heard today is rhythmic hymns of the prairie breezes through the walls and windows, singing an epitaph for a difficult yet determined way of … [Read more...]
Panhandle Plates
Nowhere else but the High Plains renders even the seasoned the observer of great storms open, unsheltered, vulnerable, and compelled to awe in the moment at forces far larger and more powerful than self, and yet, inspired and awestruck in directly confronting their imposing, compelling, fluid beauty. This storm actually was two supercells: an older, leading one responsible for most of the … [Read more...]
Llano Lightning
On a cool, breezy central Texas night above the Lord’s lit cross, a elevated updraft gift-wrapped itself in electrical ribbons for one brilliant second. The trailing cloud shield of a now-distant thunderstorm complex still spat occasional rain, making me miss a couple more of these while wiping the lens. This one, however, was not to be missed, by eye or by camera sensor. Llano TX (5 May 23) … [Read more...]
Cole Tornado and Supercell Structure
Often opaquely to densely rain-wrapped, this brief thinning of precipitation orbiting the tornado defined it nicely for visual identification during a relatively early, thick stage. Surrounding storm structure, as you can see, was amazing. Unfortunately, this tornado killed two people near Cole, despite being both in a tornado watch, and well-warned. The visual form of this stout tornado, … [Read more...]
Electrified “Mush”
Not long before, this was a brief supercell with promising structure (what's left of the updraft is on the left edge), but undercutting outflow elevated, then doomed, the storm. Spotters and chasers often call convective activity that loses its visual definition "mush", and this was becoming that. I kept the camera trained down the road, however, because delicately beautiful lightning filaments … [Read more...]
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