A high-based, multicell thunderstorm, spawned off the Sangre de Cristo Mountains (distant right horizon) casts its broad shadow across Johnson Mesa in extreme northern New Mexico. At over 8,000 feet in elevation, this very high piece of High Plains formed when lava filled the valley of an ancestral version of the Cimarron River (now to its north and east), then the softer surrounding bedrock eroded away. The 1897 church, St. John’s Methodist Episcopal, has been restored several times, and is found on the National Register of Historic Places. Summertime still finds cattle grazing this high country, dodging lightning, hail and downpours from these thunderstorms. Services also are held here some weeks, and having been inside, I wouldn’t mind attending one should the timing ever work out.
13 E Raton NM (11 Jul 19) Looking W
36.9146, -104.2052Summer Storm over Johnson Mesa
A high-based, multicell thunderstorm, spawned off the Sangre de Cristo Mountains (distant right horizon) casts its broad shadow across Johnson Mesa in extreme northern New Mexico. At over 8,000 feet in elevation, this very high piece of High Plains formed when lava filled the valley of an ancestral version of the Cimarron River (now to its north and east), then the softer surrounding bedrock eroded away. The 1897 church, St. John’s Methodist Episcopal, has been restored several times, and is found on the National Register of Historic Places. Summertime still finds cattle grazing this high country, dodging lightning, hail and downpours from these thunderstorms. Services also are held here some weeks, and having been inside, I wouldn’t mind attending one should the timing ever work out.
13 E Raton NM (11 Jul 19) Looking W
36.9146, -104.2052