On the back side of vigorous thunderstorm complexes, lightning discharges often spread out many miles from their source region in a visible fast crawl. This fan-shaped discharge was a wonderful example, brilliantly illuminating sky, land and the eyes of an attentive observer. "Anvil crawlers" like this, photographed at wide angle, spread light over hundreds of square miles and are some of the … [Read more...]
Sunset Road, Kansas
While a stunning, mature, low-precipitation supercell's updraft an anvil brilliantly colored the northern sky, this much-younger storm—evolving into another supercell—erupted with layer after layer of colors. The older supercell's fuzzy anvil bottom contributed to this display too, subtly catching both direct and reflected sunlight at upper left. All over this wondrously complex convective scene … [Read more...]
Rush Center Supercell at Sunset
Five years and six days after another spectacular western Kansas sunset with a low-precipitation supercell, the atmosphere offered up a remarkable facsimile a few counties to the north. Of course it wasn't a duplicate—no two clouds ever are—but the similarities were so remarkable that I couldn't help but think back to that moment while appreciating this. The updraft here was more tilted and … [Read more...]
Windthorst Wind Thrust
The winds of Windthorst helped this supercell to mature, then sent it off to oblivion. This is the transition between those stages. What had been a smaller but better-defined, tightening wall cloud became lower, broader and darker. The storm was ingesting a streamer of cool outflow air from a heavy shower that moved northward across the supercell's inflow region. Low-level rotation became … [Read more...]
Islets of the Blue Lagoon
Suspended, fine silica clay gives the Blue Lagoon its name, though the lake is a warm, power-plant reservoir for a nearby geothermal station. Black basalt, some covered with lichen, contributes to the strange beauty of the place. This is the "undeveloped" part, still warm and permissible to enter, but of course very rocky. Other parts of this lake serve as an internationally popular resort for … [Read more...]
Dry Ledges of Travertine
Despite being "dry" for many years near their differently colorful waterborne neighbors, the inactive ledges of Mammoth Hot Spring still stand sharp yet ghostly, resplendently frozen in time with travertine textures and mineral stains from the time when they accumulated layers under hot water flow. In the background, even older ledges show signs of erosion, having lost many of their staining … [Read more...]
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