Sunset After A Volatile Day

This colorful cloud display belies a day that produced severe and violent weather in other parts of the Midwest on Sunday, May 22, 2011. The image seen here was captured at 8:40 PM, 13 minutes after sunset and looks southeast at Boyson Park in Marion, Iowa. A hint of lingering pink colored mammatus is shown just above the treetops at center. A very prominent display of mammatus accompanied severe weather that blew through the Cedar Rapids/Marion area over four hours earlier. This same overall storm system produced the EF5 tornado that tragically struck Joplin, Missouri around 5:45 PM.