Swirling Skies Over St. Helens

 

A recent trip to Mount St. Helens in Washington state during August 24-26, 2025 graced us with wispy cirrus cloud views overhead and wind-driven dusty plumes on the crater top. Above, we are on a roadside scenic overlook southwest of Mount St. Helens (8,363 feet), which famously erupted on May 18, 1980. 11:04 am PDT, Sunday, August 24.

6:56 am PDT, Monday, August 25. Looking southeast at sunrise from the slopes of Mount St. Helens as we were into our third mile hike up the mountain in a summit attempt. Skies were partly cloudy with a thick haze. The silhouette of Mount Adams (12,281 feet) is visible below and right of the sun.

8:15 am. Looking down a rocky south slope ridge, with hazy layers of smaller mountains visible in the distance.

9:06 am. Similar view.

9:52 am. Panorama of our high point on Mount St. Helens-- The US Geological GPS Station, at 7,000 feet elevation. It was here that St. Helens finally ground us to a halt from continuous boulder scrambling and loose footing from scree and ash. We would take an extended rest here, take in food and water, and then reluctantly head back down.

9:52 am. The monitoring station and the vast vista behind it. The station is a favorite spot for hikers to rest both on the way up and on the way down as it has a relatively expansive flat area with minimal boulders. The GPS station measures ground deformations and seismic activity.

10:04 am. Looking up (longingly) toward the crater rim, still over a thousand feet distant, with wispy cirrus clouds aloft and a bright plume of dust and ash being kicked up from the crater rim at right center.

10:04 am. Looking northeast at a dust and ash plume (center).

10:04 am. Similar view.

10:14 am. Similar panoramic view.

10:15 am. Eastern limb of Mount St. Helens. A thin plume of dust and ash wafts off the crater rim at upper left; The hazy visage of Mount Adams is seen at lower right.

11:44 am. Last view of the summit (center, top) while descending the mountain. Cirrus clouds burst out over the summit in this picture.

11:44 am. Similar view, zoomed-in toward the summit. The mass jumble of rock from the 1980 eruption is very evident. Total hiking time was 8 hours, 43 minutes, with an elevation change of 3,264 feet.

10:46 am (the next day), Tuesday, August 26. An oblique view of the north face, which violently erupted outward in 1980. Steam frequently vents from this area, and initially I thought this was happening when I captured the image, but the visible whitish plume turned out to be ash and dust, swirling within the blasted-out opening. This image was captured from another scenic overlook. Nikon Z6ii camera.

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Blue Hour, Nighttime Over Mount Hood

 

Our recent hiking adventures in the Cascades provided beautiful sky photography aplenty. The destinations included Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier in Washington State and Mount Hood in Oregon. Our first camping location near the small town of Lyle in southern Washington to give us a close proximity to Mount St. Helens, also gave us a little hint of what we were to see (Mount Hood) at the end of our trip. This view of Mount Hood, some 30 miles southwest of our campsite, provided us great blue hour and nighttime photo opps right from the comfort of our camp. The image above was captured at 7:50 pm PDT on August 23, 2025 and is a 1/320 second exposure at f/9, ISO 1600 and 43mm focal length. A portion of the road leading up to the campsite can be seen at lower right.

7:55 pm. Similar view. 1/200 second exposure at f/10, ISO 1600, 70mm focal length.

8:05 pm. Tent with distant Mount Hood in background. 1/100 second exposure at f/6.3, ISO 640, 24mm focal length.

8:06 pm. Similar image, same exposure settings.

9:43 pm. Stars over red headlamp-illuminated tent. The hazy, dark form of Mount Hood is at lower left. 8 second exposure at f/1.8, ISO 2000, 35mm focal length.

10:13 pm. Milky Way looking south. 8 second exposure at f/1.8, ISO 3200, 35mm focal length. 

10:21 pm. Milky Way with a ghostly Mount Hood at lower right. 6 second exposure at f/1.8, ISO 4000, 35mm focal length. Nikon Z6ii camera.

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Convection Junction, What's Your Function?

The atmosphere in the midwest, and especially Iowa during August 15-17, 2025 proved ripe for storms, with many convective updrafts forming in the hot and humid conditions, but with few going severe. The images above and below were exceptions, with a potent severe-warned storm system rolling across north central and eastern Iowa through the midday and evening on Friday, August 15. These images, captured at 7:08 pm CDT (above), and 7:09 pm (below), look northeast at the departing system as seen from the Holiday Inn Express in Urbandale, Iowa.

Fast forward to Sunday, August 17. A new set of storms, with powerful updrafts and some even with lowerings formed in eastern Iowa during the evening. None of these went severe warned by the National Weather Service (NWS). This image of a growing updraft looks west at 5:05 pm CDT from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Radarscope image for 5:10 pm. The polygon box over Benton County is an advisory, not a severe warning.

5:22 pm. Looking north from the eastern border of Bowman Woods Park. Storm's anvil has a ragged appearance, not the smooth cauliflower look of a strong storm.

Radar capture for 6:19 pm. Storm looks linear and is staying north of Cedar Rapids. 

6:32 pm. "Tail-end Charlie" of the storm, centered on Coggon, Iowa in northern Linn County.

6:37 pm. Updraft looking northeast. 

6:58 pm. Similar image, but with a curious ring-like feature in the clouds--most likely from ice refraction in the upper clouds.

7:03 pm. New vigorous updraft forming as seen from the same location, but to the south. 

7:16 pm. I had actually set out on foot to capture the movement of this storm since it was so close! This image looks south from Boyson Road near the Boyson Park trailhead in Marion, Iowa. Very robust looking updraft with a forming darkening base. 

Corresponding reflective radar image to the photo above it. The blob of red east and southeast of Cedar Rapids from this cell is very evident. 

7:17 pm. Similar image with the darkening storm base appearing from the gap behind the trees.

7:19 pm. Similar image with the dark storm base now very evident to the eye.

7:25 pm. Farther east on Boyson Road near Alburnett Road in Marion. Lowering appearing from the storm cell looking southeast. An obvious lowering, but without an obvious rotation.

7:26 pm. Looking east from this location. Another cell with another strong updraft.

7:26 pm. Lowering in the southeast sky.

7:31 pm. Downdraft rain base looking southeast.

7:32 pm.  Similar image. Rainfall and lightning were becoming more intense. It was now time to move back toward home (on foot)!

8:02 pm. Back at home. Sky to the east was now on fire from the departing storm, with the added bonus of some mammatus formations in the mix.

8:06 pm. Similar image.

8:10 pm. Sky still ablaze but mammatus formations now obscured. Lots of convection on this day, but no severe warnings... (What's your function?) Nikon Z6ii camera.

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Pictures From The Derecho--Five Years Ago Today

It's already been five whole years since the infamous derecho roared into Eastern Iowa on August 10, 2020. Few Iowans had ever even heard of the word "derecho," but most all would remember it thereafter. The following photos were from my spotting location that day on Quiver Court in Marion, Iowa during the storm and along and near Boyson Road after it had wrought its destruction. The last image shows the Milky Way, seen with the naked eye in metro Cedar Rapids that night, visible because of the widespread power outages.

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