Backed by the dark depths of a storm complex and its shelf cloud (arcus), following the merger of supercells, an ominous sky looms over a column of smoke. A lightning strike from the anvil ignited the fire over the ridge about 10 minutes before, and the smoke plume streamed back through the inflow region into the updraft area. Within just a couple minutes, the smoke would be blasted eastward, then another few minutes more, the fire would be doused by rain. Despite the dark sky, lots of daylight remained, so I watched those happen while driving east toward Nebraska, barely behind the gust front and ahead of the rain, to get ahead of the show once again.
2 ESE Eckley CO (7 Jul 25) Looking SE
40.1047, -102.4543