Xyler, Your Visit Was Not Appreciated

Monday, April 29, 2019


Winter storm Xyler made an unwanted intrusion into spring in a wide swath across the northern plains states on Saturday, April 27, 2019 (above). Areas of northeast Iowa received as much as five inches, jolting us back to the cold reality that winter just won't leave.


Above and below are the unfortunate tulips from our front yard, bowing in submission to the rude snowfall. Even though Cedar Rapids received only an inch or less of the white stuff, it seemed just as much of a violation to spring as to those counties to the north. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.


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April 22 Linn, Jones County Iowa Severe Storm

Saturday, April 27, 2019


A severe thunderstorm watch was deemed by the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) as "unlikely" for eastern parts of the state of Iowa during the afternoon hours of Monday, April 22, 2019. I was therefore not especially vigilant for storms that suddenly went severe-warned there around 3:30 pm. In reaction to that, I hastily gathered my bare essential spotting/photography gear and set out to the east in Linn County via US Highway 151 and Springville Road (X20). In the video frame capture image above I am southbound on Springville Road, south of the town of Springville at 4:07 pm CDT. The core of a severe storm is seen on the horizon, just right of the vanishing point of the highway. This structure featured a very expansive anvil.


4:08 pm. Another video frame capture. Lightning laces the underside of the anvil as I approach Martelle Road (E45) from Springville Road.


4:09 pm. Nikon D7200 DSLR still images. Closer yet to Martelle Road. The most intense part of the storm, seen just over the horizon, was now about 3.5 miles to the south. The storm was moving right-to-left in the image.


4:10 am. Pulled over now during my brief spotting position on Martelle Road (E45) at Springville Road. Springville Road stretches south into the distance in the image. Rain bands lead the most intense part of the storm, located about 3.5 miles distant.


4:11 pm. Radarscope Pro image capture showing severe-warning, lightning, hail core areas, and my position.


4:18 pm. Another brief spotting position, this one on Martelle Road (E45), about .75-mile east of Springville Road in eastern Linn County. Image looks west at low hanging scud from the approaching storm. The scud spectacularly formed and dissipated in less than two minutes.


4:24 pm. Base velocity image of intensifying area of the storm (white arrow), along with my spotting position (target icon).


4:26 pm. Looking southeast at an intense storm lowering from Linn Grove Road at Martelle Road, 2.2 miles west of Martelle, Iowa. The above and below radar images closely correspond to this time and place.


4:25 pm. Base reflectivity of storm, showing my spotting position and proximity to hail core. Storm motion was to the northeast.


4:28 pm. Eastbound on Martelle Road, just west of town. The most intense area of the storm is about two miles distant.


4:33 pm. Stationary and located about one mile south of Martelle. This image looks east, with the departing storm in the background.


4:33 pm. Scattered hailstones on the ground. A placed penny (left center) adds scale to their size.

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And It Begins...

Thursday, April 18, 2019


The first real threat for severe weather in the state of Iowa for 2019 occurred on Wednesday, April 17.
Shown above is the SPC outllooks for the day, with half of Iowa being in a Slight Risk. An eastward tracking storm cell located west of Des Moines became severe warned about 3:00 pm CDT. I waited to see if the storm would continue to retain its severe warning as it progressed eastward, and about an hour later, it was located east of Des Moines, near the Marshalltown area, still holding its energy. It was time to pursue an intercept, so I chose US Highway 30 for the quickest route.


Westbound on US Highway 30 just east of Van Horne, Iowa at 5:11 pm. At my 11:00 o'clock position (WSW) is this severe-warned storm, whose most intense area is located about 36 miles distant, near the town of Gilman, in Marshall County.


5:51 pm. My spotting position for the approaching storm, still maintaining its severe warning. The location was 17th Avenue, about .1-mile north of US Highway 30, and about 2.75 miles southeast of the town of Keystone in western Benton County.


5:51 pm. Panorama from my spotting position. Looking west.


5:52 pm. The approaching severe storm was nearing my position, and with it the possibility of hail, so I readied myself to return east on US Highway. As I reached the intersection of 17th Avenue and US Highway 30 I stopped to capture this approaching structure to my southwest. Lightning was frequent and rain began to fall.


5:52 pm. Similar panorama image.


5:54 pm. Capture right before I got back into my car and hurried back to the east. I returned to Cedar Rapids, always just ahead of the storm, which continued to hold its severe warning the entire way. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.


Radarscope image, corresponding to 5:49 pm, of the storm and my position (target at right).

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2018 Labor Day Tornado Genesis

Saturday, April 13, 2019



A September 3, 2018 Labor Day isolated severe storm cell produced two quick tornadoes in Iowa. The following images show the tornado genesis as it progressed from my spotting position in Linn County. Above, the cell moves east (left) at 5:17 pm CDT after having produced a previous twister west of Alburnett, Iowa. An inflow cloud feeds into the base of the storm like a counter-clockwise wheel. The camera looks southwest from Central City Road and Sutton Road, about 2.3 miles WSW of Central City.


5:35 pm. Looking SW from Central City Road and Sutton Road. The inflow cloud at lower right has the appearance of frozen black water.


5:36 pm. Looking SSW. A lowering forms under a striated rotating cloud as it moves right-to-left in the image. Dangerous CG lightning was occurring at this time.


5:40 pm. The leading edge of the storm has now almost reached Sutton Road (background left). Note the appearance of a clear slot at background center.


5:42 pm. My position has now been moved to Sutton Road, about .22-mile south of Central City Road. Camera looks SSW at funnel moving right-to-left (west-to-east) in the image.


5:43 pm. Touchdown. Funnel has now become a tornado. Tornado is about .6-mile distant. It remained on the ground for no more than 30 seconds. Note the rain band circulation on the ground around the tornado. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.

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My 2018 Severe Weather Season In Review

Saturday, April 6, 2019

Severe weather season for 2019 is approaching fast and I thought I would create a posting today showing my significant intercepts from last year. Some of the following images are new to Sky & Weather Photography, having been pulled out as surplus from my Adobe Lightroom library. One event last season produced a tornado that I was witness to, and two other tornadic events occurred well past seasonal prime time (September 3 and October 9). All images were captured with my Nikon D7200 DLSR camera and each event includes a base reflectivity and base velocity radar image.


Wednesday, May 2, 2018. Severe weather got underway in southeastern Iowa. Monitoring radar,
I saw a storm cell go tornado-warned, and I set out to catch it from my home in Cedar Rapids. It was going to be close, but I passed just east and south of it on US Highway 218 at Hills, Iowa in Johnson County. My spotting location was a Casey's General Store in Hills. Above, the camera looks west at the approaching and intensifying tornadic cell at 7:46 pm CDT.


7:51 pm. The storm, accompanied by CG lightning, was tracking northeast, bringing it just to my north. As it passed to my north, high winds, dime-to-penny size hail fell and heavy rain occurred. This was conveyed to the National Weather Service.


Radar capture.


Friday, May 25, 2018. This tornado-warned cell was building to the north of Marshalltown, Iowa that evening. I raced west on US Highway 30 and positioned myself behind the Youngville Cafe, .1-mile east of US Highway 218 in Benton County. The above image was captured at 7:31 pm CDT. The most intense part of the storm, featuring a wall cloud and an inflow tail, was located about 45 miles distant, near the Marshalltown airport.


Panorama capture of the storm cell at 7:47 pm. My location now was 21st Avenue (County Road V66), just north of US Highway 30 and about 3 miles south of Van Horne, Iowa in Benton County. Shortly after this image capture, the tornado warning was lifted from the storm.

Radar capture.


Wednesday, June 6, 2018. Seeing this severe storm cell form to my west, I had ample time to get south via Interstate 380 and set up shop at the UICCU facility in North Liberty, Iowa. The storm would stay to my west and north, however, but I captured striking striation features, such as shown in the image above, captured at 5:45 pm CDT. At about this time the most intense part of the storm was located about 40 miles distant, near the town of Elberon in Tama County.

Radar capture.


This tornado-warned storm cell on Saturday, June 9, 2018 preempted a family bonfire outing near Shueyville, Iowa in Johnson County. The above image looks southwest at the approaching storm at 8:36 pm CDT. The most intense part of the storm was located about 15 miles distant--just west of Norway, Iowa in southern Benton County.


Camera looks northwest from the same location at 9:12 pm. The storm has gone tornado-warned and local sirens were sounding. Note the wall cloud being fed by an inflow tail cloud.


Radar capture.


Wednesday, June 20, 2018. This isolated storm cell had apparently not attracted much attention, judging by the lack of amateur radio traffic. The image above, looking southeast from Oliver Court, just south of Boyson Road and just west of Alburnett Road in Marion, Iowa, was captured at 3:48 pm CDT. It featured a very low and slowly rotating cloud base and was located about 7-8 miles distant, just east of Bertram, Iowa.


3:52 pm. The rotation produced this ragged funnel.


3:53 pm (above) and 3:54 pm (below). Closeups of the funnel.




Radar capture.


Thursday, July 19, 2018. Three afternoon severe storms cells began lining up in central Iowa, each moving east. My first thought was to intercept the southern cell, which was a "tail-end Charlie," and was the largest and moving in the general direction of Iowa City. On my way south on Interstate 380 my instincts instead changed to travel west on US Highway 30 and target that storm, which appeared to be intensifying at that very moment. So with only minutes to spare, I chose the Highway 30 option. With each mile west, the cell loomed larger in the distance, and I could tell this wasn't going to be an ordinary storm. In southeastern Tama County my weather radio began blaring ominous news of "a tornado emergency" and "a deadly tornado on the ground in Marshalltown (Iowa)." Not wanting to get embroiled in that situation and wanting to find an optimum location to spot the storm as it continued east, I chose Highway V18 at 320th Street just north of US Highway 30 in southeastern Tama County. My open, 360-degree view of sky was located about 1.3 miles south of Vining, Iowa and about 26 miles east of the beleaguered town of Marshalltown, where an EF3 tornado was indeed on the ground. The panorama image above looks northwest at 4:51 pm CDT at that location.


Around 5:20 pm a bowl lowering was passing over my location and heavy rain began to fall, so because of these issues in visibility I decided to jump back into the car and head back east on Highway 30. While doing so, I captured the images (above and below) of the tail-end of this storm seen along 30 at 5:35 and 5:36 pm. Camera looks northeast.



Radar capture.



Monday, September 3, 2018. Labor Day. Thinking football, not severe weather. But by late afternoon an isolated storm cell was intensifying in eastern Benton County and western Linn County and suddenly became tornado-warned! My spotting plan was to take Highway 13 north of Marion, Iowa to an intercept point east of the storm. Just south of Central City I chose the west option of Central City Road (County Road E16) and found a suitable spot at the intersection of Sutton Road, about 2.5 miles southwest of Central City. Despite a dangerous barrage of CG lightning,  I captured this image of the approaching tornadic storm cell to my southwest at 5:17 pm CDT. The magnificent structure featured a wall cloud and a vigorous inflow tail cloud, rotating like a wheel and feeding into the storm at its low cloud base.


The storm was passing to my south so I quickly drove across Central City Road on Sutton Road for a short distance of .2-mile and a better view. A condensation funnel appeared, began lowering, and finally touched ground to my south as I captured this image at 5:43 pm CDT. The tornado, located only about .6-mile from my location, was on the ground for less than 30 seconds and moved right-to-left in this picture. I reported the tornado to the NWS, and within 15 minutes the storm began losing its intensity and I opted to go home instead of continuing to follow it.


Radar capture.


October 9, 2018. Really not expecting tornadic weather this month, but got some anyway. Picked up my spotting partner in Cedar Rapids as a tornado-warned cell formed to our west. We chose the US Highway 30 option and soon witnessed an impressive wall cloud to our southwest, as seen in the background of this image at 3:45 pm CDT. The building in the foreground is Van Horn Ford of Newhall, Iowa.


3:48 pm. Stopping briefly at this location to capture images and make a wall cloud report to the NWS in the Quad Cities. Image looks southwest from US Highway 30 at 27th Avenue in Benton County, Iowa.


Following 27th Avenue (W14) north, we pulled over to our next spotting position alongside the highway about .6-mile south of 67th Street in Benton County. The tornadic storm cell had passed over us, tracking to the northeast. As it did, brief backlit sunshine beautifully contrasted and illuminated the soybean fields and the massive storm with its angled funnel cloud in this capture at 4:19 pm.


A stop at Van Horn Ford for more spotting as another wall cloud approached. The above panorama, captured at 5:12 pm, shows the large wall cloud moving right-to-left in the image and passing to our east.


5:24 pm. Tornado Emergency Alert on my cell phone, showing the seriousness of the situation.


Radar capture.


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