This still ranks as the most stunning, brilliantly lit sunset wall cloud I’ve seen. Every bit of these colors on the Provia slide blazed into our eyeballs, and still more in the surrounding sky. No scan, no slide, no video can do justice to the richness of the scene that the sky gave us for just a few minutes, one stormy May day outside Childress. A mesocyclone formed along the intersection of an outflow boundary with the leading edge of a short line of thunderstorms. Though the mesocyclone would be undercut fast by cold outflow, it peaked right at sunset. The result: Brilliant golden rain shafts wrapping around a wall cloud cast orange by the sun’s setting rays, copper tones tinting the shadows, while pink scud raced overhead beneath the gray-blue patches of the inner storm clouds. No tornado? So what!
3 WNW Childress TX (2 May 1) Looking SW
35.4544, -100.278