Red Sky At Morning, Sailor Take Warning

That old nautical adage held true on land around 6:25 AM, Tuesday, August 30, 2011 as seen from Brentwood Drive NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. A red sunrise reflects dust particles that have just passed from the west. It is a possible indicator of a storm system moving east. The deep fiery red of a morning sky indicates high water content in the atmosphere, bringing rain. This northeast sky spectacle lasted only about 10 minutes before gray clouds quickly covered it up. Indeed, 20 minutes later came light rain and in the afternoon thundershowers with heavy rainfall fulfilled the proverbs' words.

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Pretty Park

Cumulus clouds

brilliantly reflected

by the setting sun

appear flourescent

in this view looking

southwest at Bowman

Woods Park in Cedar

Rapids, Iowa around

8:45 PM, Saturday,

July 23, 2011.

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Turbulent Underside

This anvil cloud laden with mammatus continues to blot out remaining blue sky in this view looking southeast at Lininger Park in Marion, Iowa around 5:25 PM, Tuesday, July 26, 2011. The anvil is also eclipsing a rapidly growing cumulonimbus calvus tower seen at lower right. The calvus cloud was located about 22 miles away in Jones County.

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Dark Stars

A dark sky north of Cedar Rapids and Marion, Iowa provided this star-studded view looking northwest from near the Hoffman Tree Farm off C Avenue, about .75 mile north of East Main Street. This image, a one-minute exposure shot at f/3.5, 400 ISO and a 18mm focal length, includes the entire constellation of Ursa Major (The Great Bear). City light pollution to the south precluded a good look at the Milky Way visible during this time and date of 9:50 PM, Wednesday, August 24, 2011.

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Minden Exit Mammatus

A mix of lesser-pronounced mammatus clouds drift past in this view of the north sky along 335th Street about .15 mile south of the Minden, Iowa exit (Exit 29) from Interstate 80. The time and date was 3:55 PM, Saturday, April 9, 2011. The camera was positioned just outside a U-Stop convenience store, our storm chase team's first storm initiation waiting point. After grabbing some provisions and gas, we soon moved to a more open area (seen at background right with the large sign pole and dark dumpster), another .15 mile north of I-80. The mammatus clouds indicated a very moist, unstable level of atmosphere overlying a drier layer and hinted at the severe weather that arrived north of this position about two hours later. The severe weather system produced an outbreak of tornadoes moving across Western Iowa in a northeasterly direction.

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Bank Shot

This bank of cumulus clouds, whose tops are illuminated by a hidden sun, stretches across the southwest sky as seen from the corner of Progress Drive and Martha's Way in Hiawatha, Iowa around 7:20 AM, Thursday, July 28, 2011. The sky was becoming progressively cloudier at this point and strong thunderstorms arrived here about an hour and a half later.

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Non-Stationary Station

Moving left-to-right 13 degrees above the northern horizon in this image, the International Space Station (ISS) created this light streak, a product of a 3.5 minute exposure taken from about 9:58-10:02 PM, Sunday, August 21, 2011. The image was shot from Echo Hill Presbyterian Church in Marion, Iowa. Polaris, the North Star, is seen at top (center-right), and The Big Dipper asterism at upper left. The blobs of light on the horizon are car headlights along C Avenue. Settings for this image included an f/3.5 aperture, 400 ISO and 18mm focal length. The ISS, traveling at an average ground speed of 17,227 mph, regained this same observation point from its previous orbital pass in just one hour and 34 minutes.

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Portent Of Things To Come

This large cumulonimbus anvil cloud in the southern sky as seen from Progress Drive in Hiawatha, Iowa was about an hour and a half in advance of the arrival of heavy thunderstorms in the area. The thunderstorms produced heavy rain and frequent lightning. 7:25 AM, Thursday, July 28, 2011.

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Heavy Rolling In Near Onawa

The overhanging anvil of a building supercell rolls into the state of Iowa from Nebraska just before 6:00 PM, Saturday, April 9, 2011. This spot on Cherry Avenue (a dirt road) just .1-mile south of Highway 175 (background) was our second storm initiation waiting point for the day's chase and is located about 2.8 miles west of the Onawa, Iowa exit (Exit 112) from Interstate 29 or about one mile southwest of Lewis and Clark State Park. The image looks northwest. The powerful supercell began forming in eastern Nebraska just after 5:00 PM and by about 7:15 PM, it dropped its first tornado just southwest of Mapleton, Iowa--17.5 miles northeast of here. The tornado would later be rated an EF3, and damaged a large portion of the town around 7:30 PM. Many more tornadoes also formed from the system as it moved farther to the northeast. Unseasonably warm temperatures (81 degrees) and high dew points (73 degrees) on this day in western Iowa helped fuel the instability of the atmosphere.

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Splash Of Altocumulus

This altocumulus-dominated sky looks southeast from the parking lot at Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 8:20 AM, Sunday, July 17, 2011. The structures in the background left are retail stores near the intersection of C Avenue and Boyson Road NE.

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'That's No Moon, It's a Space Station...'

Even though a three-quarters moon was up and rising in the eastern sky, the attraction of the moment was this view of the International Space Station (ISS) as it orbited overhead (left to right in this image) 16 degrees above the horizon. This capture at f/6.3 and 320 ISO was created from an exposure taken from about 10:39-10:43 PM, Wednesday, August 17, 2011. This view looks north from the grounds at Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with 74th Street NE in the background. The ISS had also earlier passed over this spot 43 degrees above the horizon just after 9:00 PM. The space station's brightness faded rapidly as it neared the right portion of this image.

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No Good ISS Tonight

These altocumulus clouds were present in the northeast sky around 9:50 PM, Tuesday, August 16, 2011 from just south of Boyson Road (background) and west of Alburnett Road in Marion, Iowa. The clouds thickened around the horizon here ten minutes later preventing a good shot of the orbiting International Space Station (ISS). This image was created by a 33-second exposure at f/6.3, 250 ISO and 18mm focal length.

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Streamer Meets Step Leader

Okay, the quality of these images is not great. But hey, they were shot at night from a long distance, shot through our chase vehicle's window glass, shot while moving and are video frame captures...With that said, these three images show a streamer (arrow, left panel) moving upward from the ground, meeting a step leader from above as a lightning bolt (middle) and its dissipation (right). These views look east from US Highway 71, about 5.5 miles south of Early, Iowa around 8:50 PM, Saturday, April 9, 2011, and were part of a brilliant lightning display. Streamers form as objects on the surface responding to a strong electric field. The objects reach out to the cloud above by growing positive streamers. If a negatively charged step leader from above meets the streamer, an ionized conductive path is completed creating the flow of current which we know as lightning.

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Approaching Mapleton

A tornado, in its early stages, approaches Mapleton, Iowa from about two miles southwest of town around 7:20 PM, Saturday, April 9, 2011. At this point there was not a distinct funnel, and indeed our chase group was not completely sure what it was we were seeing from Sumac Avenue, at the mouth of a farm driveway (toward right). The location was about a quarter mile north of County Highway E34 and about seven miles from both the tornado and Mapleton. This view looks northwest. Note the rain shafts flanking the twister. The tornado would soon grow to EF3 strength, heavily damaging the town. Partially hidden at lower left is storm chaser and Iowa State University meteorology student Bryce Link.

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Not Quite a Wash

This bright meteor from the Perseids meteor shower overcame the strong glare of a nearly full moon to be captured in this image, a 25-second exposure at f/4, 250 ISO and 18mm focal length. The image, looking northeast from Brentwood Drive in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was shot at 1:15 AM, Saturday, August 13, 2011. The meteor streaks through its namesake constellation Perseus--the radiant point--on peak shower day. At upper left is the constellation Cassiopeia. Peeking just above the roof line at lower right is the bright planet Jupiter, magnitude -2.51. The moon was located out of the picture at right and shielded by a large tree.

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Mega Meso

This massive mesocyclone cloud, taking up a good portion of the sky, was not as visible to the eye as it is in this image. A 12-second exposure at f/8 and an ISO of 250 brought out details the eye had trouble discerning. Frequent lightning flashes provided the exposure's illumination. Getting a sharp image was a difficult proposition here, even with a tripod--sustained RFD winds of near 50 mph buffeted the cameraman. This 12 second exposure reveals a slight blur from the rotation of the storm structure, containing a lowering at left. The meso had produced a wedge tornado near Nemaha, Iowa about a half-hour earlier. This view, shot around 9:45 PM, Saturday, April 9, 2011, looks north from County Road D15, about 1.5 miles west of the town of Knoke, in northwest Iowa. The red lights in the background belong to a wind farm. The road leading off into the horizon and past a farm at left is County Road N33.

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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.

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Safe and Dry from Thunderstorm

Just a few feet under the entrance overhang at Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa kept me safe and dry from a thunderstorm with heavy rain that was raging around 9:40 PM, Friday, July 22, 2011. This view looks south across the church's parking lot toward a retail area near C Avenue and Boyson Road NE. The thunderstorm was occurring behind a gust front that blew through about a half-hour earlier. This image was the product of an eight-second exposure at f/14, 200 ISO and 18mm focal length.

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Radar Suggested Otherwise...

Although research from later radar images showed no rotation in the specific area and instead suggested an intense rain or hail shaft, the distant dark area (with lightning bolt) in this image resembles a tornado. This is a video frame capture and looks north on Keystone Avenue at 330th Street, about 8 miles south of Ida Grove in northwest Iowa. Standing in the foreground at lower left is storm chaser Nick Carletta. The time was about 8:10 PM on Saturday, April 9, 2011 and the sky was totally dark, but incessant flashes of lightning allowed image captures such as this one. Accompanying the lightning were sustained RFD winds of 50-60 mph.

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Critter's-Eye-View of Dynamic Clouds in Hiawatha

This colorful view of morning clouds is seen from Progress Drive in Hiawatha, Iowa around 7:25 AM, Thursday, July 28, 2011. This northeast view looks over clumps of sumac, a cornfield and a hidden Interstate 380 (just behind the horizon, about a quarter mile distant). At right is a forming cumulonimbus cloud. Thunderstorms arrived at this location about an hour an a half later.

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Phosphorescent Sky

These clouds overlooking Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 8:45 PM, Saturday, July 23, 2011 had a rather phosphorescent appearance as low light from the day's sunset reflected off them. This spectacular view looks west.

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Surf's Up?

Looking like a large wave about to break onto shore, this shelf cloud moves relentlessly forward toward Noelridge Christian Church (right) in NE Cedar Rapids, Iowa at 9:00 PM, Friday, July 22, 2011. This view looks due north. Until about this moment the leading edge of this gust front was silent in its steady and swift advance from the northwest, but winds soon began to pick up. The front was gobbling up all the hot and muggy air in front of it. This is a 3-second exposure at f/5.6, 200 ISO and 18mm focal length.

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Cloud Eclipses Cloud

The anvil of one cumulonimbus cloud obscures another in this scene from Lininger Park in Marion, Iowa around 5:20 PM, Tuesday, July 26, 2011. The underside of the anvil cloud in the foreground contains a smattering of mammatus, which often form in this type of environment--a result of very moist and unstable middle or upper level air, overlying a drier layer. The "eclipsing" of the calvus cloud in the background prevented me from seeing all of its swiftly rising tower. This view looks southeast.

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