Plain Ominous

Just beyond the river plain in the foreground of this image is an approaching and intensifying supercell. Last vestiges of blue sky and sunlight are about to be covered up by it. The time was 5:50 PM on Saturday, April 9, 2011. The supercell had begun to form in eastern Nebraska just after 5:00 PM. The system would spawn a string of tornadoes in northwest Iowa, starting a little over an hour and a half later with the Mapleton, Iowa tornado--22 miles to the northeast of this location (on Cherry Avenue, just .1 mile south of Highway 175 and about 2.8 miles west of Onawa). This view looks southwest toward the Missouri river, about 3 miles distant. Highway 175 runs just in front of the tree line in the background. The two communication towers seen at lower right are located in Decatur, Nebraska, just on the other side of the river.