A product of a sci-fi CGI creator during a journey through mind-altering substances? Hardly! Instead, the cause of this marvelous effect was rather ordinary: a motel-door peephole breaking the early-morning sunshine into its component colors and shining the result on the otherwise dark room's far wall. I didn't awaken expecting to break out the camera this soon, indoors, on an intended … [Read more...]
Search Results for: "May 18"
Sentinel Shelf and Strokes
Even though the "Supercell Bell" had lost much of its supercellular character and turned back east again, what was left of the storm continued to put on a wonderful display as it journeyed through the western Oklahoma twilight, surfing its own outflow and plowing a beautifully banded shelf cloud along. This "smorgasbord of atmospheric violence" still wasn't done offering its dinner feast! Two … [Read more...]
Supercell Bell
For just a short time, a supercell that nearly dissipated just a few miles to the west reinvigorated dramatically, assuming this tremendous appearance. I have seen countless many rotating thunderstorms assume similar cloud forms across every part of the American prairie, and still, each new one is unique in detail, magnetic in its capacity to generate appreciative mindfulness, and unfailingly, … [Read more...]
Vault Strike
Supercells' vault regions are notorious lightning factories, and this was no exception. As the storm moved closer, so did the powerful electrical generator located unseen, high above the right side of the view, where intense charge separation was underway on the margins of the tilted mid/upper-level updraft. This stroke, blasting into a tree in the row about a mile distant, sent me back to the … [Read more...]
Morning Shelfie
An arcus cloud with your morning coffee? Thunderstorms to the north sent a cold pool of outflow rushing outward to force up a nocturnally cooled near-surface layer of air, rendering this beautiful formation to start the day. The outflow at the surface extended miles past the shelf cloud, as evident in the stiff breeze whipping the flags, and revealing the shallow slope of the whole stable-layer … [Read more...]
Arcus Lenticulars
Lenticular (lens-shaped) clouds don't just form over mountains. Any forced, tightly focused lift of sufficiently moist air will work, regardless of the cause. Here, lenticulars developed above an arcus (shelf) cloud from a cluster of thunderstorms moving north to south, toward the viewer. Morning arcus formations can be some of the most spectacular and peculiar, thanks to the time of day. … [Read more...]