The same process caused both the blowing sand atop the nearby dunes and the deep towering cumulus in the background: an outflow pool, heaved forth by thunderstorms in mountains to the distant left. Though a small rain core descended from these towers, the rain would be short-lived and sparse for anyone beneath, as so often is the case in the Tularosa Basin (containing White Sands National Monument). The outflow undercut the shower’s towers before a full cumulonimbus could mature. True to form in this desert, the rain dissipated, and the gypsum sands kept on a’blowin’.
19 WSW Alamogordo NM (18 Jun 19) Looking SSE
32.8206, -106.2683Shower from a Tower, Beyond the Blowing Sand
The same process caused both the blowing sand atop the nearby dunes and the deep towering cumulus in the background: an outflow pool, heaved forth by thunderstorms in mountains to the distant left. Though a small rain core descended from these towers, the rain would be short-lived and sparse for anyone beneath, as so often is the case in the Tularosa Basin (containing White Sands National Monument). The outflow undercut the shower’s towers before a full cumulonimbus could mature. True to form in this desert, the rain dissipated, and the gypsum sands kept on a’blowin’.
19 WSW Alamogordo NM (18 Jun 19) Looking SSE
32.8206, -106.2683