Strike Night

A CTG lightning bolt slashes from beneath a storm cell as it passes west of Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 8:54 PM, Friday, May 25, 2012. Although some flashes of lightning were observed overhead at this location from Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, little effects of the storm were experienced here. Image is an eleven second exposure at f/25, 200 ISO and 24mm focal length.

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Cumulonimbus Perspectives

These were the views of a large storm cell on our eastern horizon Monday afternoon, May 28, 2012, as we returned home to Cedar Rapids from a Memorial Day trip to Des Moines, Iowa. In panel 1, the storm was located about 80 miles away at the border of Keokuk and Washington counties. In panel 12, the storm was about 40 miles from our position, in Muscatine and Cedar counties. Time and place of our vehicle was as follows: Panel 1: 3:10 PM. At E. University Ave. & Copper Creek Dr. in Des Moines. 2: 3:18 PM. Interstate 80 & US Hwy. 6 interchange near Adventureland Park. 3. 3:21 PM. At a Casey's on 1st Ave. N. in Altoona. 4. 3:32 PM. I-80 1.3 miles west of Mitchellville. 5. 3:41 PM. I-80 just NE of Colfax and 8 miles west of Newton. 6. 3:43 PM. I-80 west of Newton. 7. 3:47 PM. I-80 just west of Newton. 8. 3:48 PM. I-80 at Newton near the Iowa Speedway. 9. 3:51 PM. I-80 just east of Newton. 10. 3:57 PM. I-80 at the Lynnville/Oakland Acres exit. 11. 4:21 PM. I-80 at rest area about 2.5 miles west of Ladora exit. 12. I-80 near the Williamsburg exit.

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Cumulonimbus Splendor

My wife and I spent Memorial Day in Des Moines and Central Iowa and I had the good fortune of watching this cumulonimbus storm cell blossom to the east--in the direction of our return home to Cedar Rapids. The cell began forming west of Ottumwa, Iowa just after 2:00 PM, Monday, May 28, 2012. A "pit stop" at the Casey's General Store for gas on 1st Avenue North in Altoona, Iowa just off Interstate 80 presented me with this magnificent view of the structure at 3:21 PM. The cell's anvil tip is at left, with the trailing updraft "engine" some 26 miles behind it (right), with cloud tops there around 45,000 feet. The storm was actually located 80 miles away in NW Washington County. The building seen at left is operated by Interstate Powersystems Inc. at 407 Adventureland Drive NE Altoona. The bottom radar image shows the storm (between Ottumwa and Cedar Rapids) and our vehicle's position in relation to it (the star just east of Des Moines) at 3:21 PM.

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Twin Storm Cells

Although not severe-warned themselves, the two thunderstorm cells in the top image were part of a line of storms that fired up on Memorial Day, Monday afternoon, May 28, 2012 from just northeast of Ottumwa, Iowa all the way up into southwest Wiscconsin. The storm cells can also be seen in the NWS-Quad Cities radar image (circled) at bottom. The top photo looks SSE from the new Bowman Meadows housing development site in Marion, Iowa around 5:29 PM. The cells were located about 55 miles away from the camera in northern Louisa County and were about 20 miles apart.

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Contrasts In Cloud Color

As a thunderstorm moved in a SW-to-NE direction west of this position at Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 8:34 PM, Friday, May 25, 2012, it began to cover up the setting sun. Dark bluish-gray clouds at left from the more concentrated areas of the storm contrasted greatly with the yellowish areas of the right side of the image--the leading edge of the storm cell.

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Zapped!

Cloud-to-ground lightning (CTG) discharges from a thunderstorm cell in this view of the WNW sky around 9:10 PM, Friday, May 25, 2012. This image looks toward the White Ivy Place NE neighborhood as seen from the grounds at Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The storm cell was reaching a altitude of nearly 50,000 feet in places. The lightning strike was probably about four miles away. This cell slid west of Cedar Rapids--pretty much missing the city--which most storms of 2012 have had a propensity of doing. Photo is a 24-second exposure at f/11, 200 ISO and is cropped from an 18mm focal length lens setting.

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Exercise In Initiation

Iowa State University meteorology students and storm chasers Sam Schreier (foreground) and Tristan Morath toss a football back-and-forth in very breezy conditions while passing the time away during the waiting phase for severe thunderstorms to fire up (initiation). This image looks north from a cleared former gas station and convenience store site about .2-mile north of the Minden, Iowa exit (Exit 29) along Interstate 80. The atmosphere was building for a tornado outbreak as the open sun was providing fuel and instability at this moment--4:23 PM, Saturday, April 9, 2011--with temperatures in the lower 80s and dew points in the lower 70s. Schreier and Morath were part of an eight-person, two-vehicle chase group that included me. A supercell began forming in eastern Nebraska just before 5:00 PM, prompting the group to head west to near the Missouri River, then zigzagging northeast through western Iowa staying on the SE flank of a powerful storm system. The water tower in the background is less than a mile distant.

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Much Potential, Little Output

A severe thunderstorm watch was issued just before 3:30 PM CDT, Thursday, May 24, 2012 for much of Eastern Iowa. And a seemingly strong line of storms approached the Cedar Rapids, Iowa area after 6:00 PM. The cluster seen in the bottom radar image toward the lower left had been severe warned. Despite the rather impressive looking scud-laden outflow structure in the photo image at top, little more than some high wind was encountered here. No lightning and very little rain, something much needed in the current very dry conditions.  The white arrow on the radar image points to the area in which you are viewing in the top image. The photo was taken at 6:40 PM from the grounds at Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids.

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Bite Out Of The Sun

About 40% of the sun appeared missing around 8:11 PM, Sunday, May 20, 2012 in this west view of the sky as seen from the grounds at Christ Community United Methodist Church in Marion, Iowa. As the sun set behind the trees at lower right about ten minutes later, some 65-70% of the disk was gone. Observers in the western United States were treated to an annular eclipse--a dark center with a "ring of fire" on the outside edge. Visible at lower left in this image is traffic along East Robins Road. This shot was imaged using a 200mm lens. 

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Eclipse Sequence

This is a sequence of nine images showing the solar eclipse as seen from Marion, Iowa on Sunday, May 20, 2012. The sequence starts (left) at 8:09 PM and ends at 8:19 PM. Sunset was 8:25 PM. I had ensured a sharp focus of the event in darkening conditions by earlier autofocusing the sky next to the sun's disk, then flipping the switch to manual focus. I used a 200mm lens.

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Dark Side Of The Sun

About 65% of the sun was covered by the moon around 8:17 PM, Sunday, May 20, 2012 in this view of the west sky seen from the SW corner of the grounds at Christ Community United Methodist Church in Marion, Iowa. The small set of headlights at lower left in the top image is a vehicle along East Robins Road from neighboring Cedar Rapids. Quite frankly, the prospects of even seeing any of the solar eclipse on this evening had not been particularly favorable. Weather forecasts a full week before had been consistently predicting a 30% chance of storms for this day (the only day in the seven-day that had this forecast), and although the storms never materialized, significant cloudiness persisted right up until about 30 minutes from the start of the eclipse (7:23 PM). I felt truly fortunate that skies cleared in time for this rare spectacle! Sunset was eight minutes away when this image was captured. It was relatively safe to look at it without protection at this time.

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Maynard Mammatus

Mammatus-like clouds roil across the northeast sky as seen in this image from State Highway 150, about .25-mile south of County Highway C33 and about one mile west of Maynard, Iowa in Fayette County. Photo taken at 4:30 PM, Saturday, May 19, 2012. Nothing came of this sometimes severe weather display, unlike the situation here 44 years ago. On May 15, 1968, Maynard suffered a serious hit from an F5 twister, killing two of its residents.

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Looming Large--Even A State Away

Long distance didn't matter here. The immense storm cell shown in the top image was still impressive and located at an average of 160 miles from the camera's location at the new Bowman Meadows housing development south of Boyson Road and west of Alburnett Road in Marion, Iowa around 8:10 PM on Tuesday, May 15, 2012. Also shown at right in the (8:00 PM) radar image, the cell stretched some 60 miles and its eastern edge extended into the Chicago area. It moved from between the Madison/Janesville, Wisconsin area at 5:00 PM; to between the Janesville, Wisconsin/Rockford, Illinois area by 6:00 PM; between the Rockford/Aurora, Illinois area by 7:00 PM; at the Aurora area by 8:00 PM;  and between the Aurora/Marseilles, Illinois area by 9:00 PM.

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Just A Drop In The Rain Bucket

Clouds swirl above and rain shafts deposit precipitation below as a thundershower moved through the Cedar Rapids, Iowa area on the afternoon/evening of Tuesday, May 15, 2012. The rain was brief and did nothing to quench the dry conditions that were beginning to be felt in this part of the state. Along with the short duration rainfall, brief high wind gusts--up to 45 mph--accompanied the system, caused by precipitation evaporating in the dry air below the showers. This view, looking north around 4:26 PM, was taken from the grounds at Noelridge Christian Church.

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Dusk Collectors

Gathered light from the setting sun reflects from the surface of two distant storm cells in this view of the southeast sky as seen from the new Bowman Meadows housing development site south of Boyson Road and west of Alburnett Road in Marion, Iowa. Capture time for this image was 8:11 PM, Tuesday, May 15, 2012. The left cell, rising to about 35,000 feet, was about 120 miles away from the camera's eye while the right cell, topping at around 45,000 feet, was about 100 miles away. Both were located northeast of Galesburg, Illinois. The area in front of the left cell was at this moment severe thunderstorm-warned. Weak thundershowers had moved through the Cedar Rapids/Marion area about three hours previous, producing some brief rain and high wind gusts. Sunset on this day was at 8:20 PM.

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Weak Storm Cell Brings Rain, Strong Winds

This rather weak storm cell (top image) approached from the WNW as seen from the grounds at Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 4:45 PM, Tuesday, May 15, 2012. Rising no more than 30,000 feet, the cell soon brought brief rain (note the rain shafts) and some 45 mph wind gusts. The gusts were created from precipitation evaporating in the dry air below the showers. The system moved out of the area and within an hour or so skies were again clear. Only a couple rumbles of thunder were audible from the cloud. The bottom image is a radar capture of the cell.

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Still Crazy After All These Miles

A weak line of thundershowers moved through the Cedar Rapids/Marion Iowa area just before 5:00 PM, Tuesday, May 15, 2012. Three hours later the storm cells looked impressive even at extreme distances and intensified as they moved southeast into the state of Illinois. The top image shows a lineup of three storm cells as seen in the east-southeast sky from the new Bowman Meadows housing development just south of Boyson Road and west of Alburnett Road in Marion, Iowa. The far left cell

was at this moment averaging a distance of about 160 miles. Its area stretched about 60 miles from SW-to-NE and included the Illinois counties of LaSalle, DeKalb, Kendall and Cook (into the Chicago area).

The middle cell (severe warned at this moment) was about 120 miles to the SE, in Stark County, around 40 miles to the NE of Galesburg, Illinois. The far right cell was about 100 miles to the SE, near the border of Knox and Henry counties, about 17 miles NE of Galesburg. The bottom image is a radar capture of the cells at 8:08 PM, the time of the top photo. Left cell was at 40,000 feet, middle cell 35,000 feet and right cell 45,000 feet.

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Weather Station Maintenance

The weather station atop our house
gets a fresh battery change twice a
year and that was the project here
on Saturday, May 12, 2012. The
two-each size "AA" super lithium
batteries are installed inside the three
wireless solar transmitters (white devices
with mini antennas). The main unit,
which dislays the reading window for
inside monitoring of the weather, is seen
at lower left. The unit was brought up to
the roof to enable it to more closely search
for the wireless signal once the new batteries
had been installed. The white layered device
behind the tripod is a radiation shield which
covers the thermo sensor and provides for more
accurate temperature readings when the sun is
shining directly on it. This weather station was
manufactured by Oregon Scientific and is
                                                         model number WMR968.

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High Halo

The sun wore a halo around it around 1:08 PM, Saturday, May 12, 2012 as seen from the Bowman Woods neighborhood in NE Cedar Rapids. The sun was a lofty 66 degrees above the horizon in this view looking south. Haloes are caused by refracted light passing through ice crystals in cirriform clouds that lie between the observer and the light source and are present high in the atmosphere. Most ice crystals are hexagonal with two flat ends.

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Bowman Meadows Storm Cell

A line of visually impressive looking storm clouds stretch across the south and east sky (top) around 7:48 PM, Friday, May 11, 2012 as seen from the Bowman Meadows housing development site in Marion, Iowa. The isolated storm cell is also shown in a radar image (bottom), with the yellow dot and arrow pointing from the camera's location to the middle of the top image.  The cell generated brief mammatus and produced rain (a rain shaft can be seen below it), but no audible thunder was heard from the Bowman Meadows location. Bowman Meadows is a former farm field being developed into single family dwellings just south of Boyson Road and east of Cedar Rapids. This storm cell skirted south of Cedar Rapids, leaving it untouched.

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Refueling And Waiting

Our storm chase vehicles (front two) are fueled up while the occupants buy snacks and beverages at the Phillips 66 U-Stop about .2-mile south of the Minden, Iowa exit  (Exit 29) off Interstate 80 just before 4:00 PM on Saturday, April 9, 2011. This was part of the storm-initiation waiting phase which continued
minutes later about .2-mile north of the exit at the cleared site of a former convenience store. Walking by the cars are Iowa State Meteorology students Tristan Morath (left) and Nick Carletta. Monitoring weather conditions in the car at center is Bryce Link (back seat) and Ryan Alliss (front seat). Inside the store were ISU chasers Ethan Milius, Tyler Roney and Sam Schreier. The "official" chase began about an hour later with our cars traveling west on I-80, then north on Interstate 29 before zigzagging northeastward throughout the night in western Iowa. A prolific evening of storm chasing was just around the corner as a significant tornado outbreak was literally just on the horizon.

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Mixed Sky At Noelridge

A mixture of many colors is what the northern sky looked like around 7:50 PM, Thursday, May 3, 2012 at Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. An approaching thundershower was beginning to eclipse the last traces of a sunny sky.

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Dying Twister In NW Iowa

This single image is a combination of four separate video frame captures of the tail end of the life of a tornado northwest of Arthur, Iowa around 8:30 PM, Saturday, April 9, 2011. The tornado, probably on the ground at least since 8:20 PM, started out as a wedge shape. While driving northbound on County Highway M31 our chase vehicle watched as it quickly morphed into an elephant trunk, changing shape with each flash of lightning. Around 8:30 the four occupants of our vehicle piled out after stopping at this location--about one mile south of Arthur on M31--to capture video of the spectacle. The time span from photo one to photo four in this image is only about 25 seconds. The funnel begins to really thin out in photo 3 and by photo four it is gone, although one can still see debris on the ground beneath the wall cloud.

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Tornado Link

Storm chaser Bryce Link (lower left in both images) shoots video with his digital camera of a wedge tornado to our north as we sped eastward along County Highway E16 at (and then just east of) 130th Street, about 8.5 miles east of Mapleton, Iowa. These video frame capture images were taken around 7:48 PM, Saturday, April 9, 2011. Link was an Iowa State University meteorology student. Also aboard the chase vehicle was Ryan Alliss (driver and leader), Ethan Milius (navigator and info gatherer), and myself as "expedition photographer and videographer." Link also drew info from his laptop.

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King Arthur

This dramatic video frame capture of an "elephant trunk" tornado under an amazing wall cloud just northwest of Arthur, Iowa was made possible by a timely flash of lightning around 8:30 PM, Saturday, April 9, 2011. The chase group of Ryan Alliss, Ethan Milius, Bryce Link, Gregg Alliss, Tyler Roney, Nick Carletta, Tristan Morath and Sam Schreier were at this moment parked alongside County Highway M31 (seen in the foreground), about a mile south of of Arthur (city lights in background). The twister here was northwest of Arthur, between town and the neighboring town of Ida Grove. The tornado had showed a wedge shape about 10 minutes earlier and 7.4 miles farther south on M31. This storm was part of a powerful tornado outbreak in western Iowa on this night. All along M31, it was a kind of surreal visual experience. With each flash of lightning every few seconds, the shape of the tornado would change. It kind of reminded me of a seeing one of those old Kinematoscope movies from the 19th century or a  super slow motion strobe effect.

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Tornado Trailer

The remains of a possible RFD (Rear Flank Downdraft) anti-cyclonic spinup (right) moves (from left to right in this image) along the rear of a supercell that moments before produced an EF3 tornado vortex that heavily damaged the town of Mapleton, Iowa about five miles to the northwest. Some ground debris can still be seen churned up below it. The spinup did not make an audible noise to our chase group. Minutes later our group proceeded northeast along the supercell's SE flank, encountering at least a half dozen more twisters before the night's chase was through. This photo's location was at Sumac Avenue (foreground) and 170th Street (across image) and looks northwest. Time and date was 7:31 PM, Saturday, April 9, 2011.

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Fading Blue

The last remnant of a previous blue sky is nearly covered by clouds as a thunderstorm moves through this location-- Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa--around 7:45 PM, Thursday, May 3, 2012. This view looks north. The thunderstorm brought steady rain with lightning to the area.

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Beauty Before The Storm

An approaching thunderstorm begins to blot out the setting sun in this view of the northwest sky around 7:30 PM, Thursday, May 3, 2012. An outflow band, created from cool air colliding with warm moist air, is seen at top. The subsequent thunderstorm was tame by most standards, with rain less than .20 inch, no hail and no high winds. Lightning was its dominant aspect. This image was captured from my spotter's position at Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

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Condo Lightning

The stroke of a CTG lightning bolt strikes beyond the Colton Square Condominums as seen from Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 8:37 PM, Thursday, May 3, 2012. This
image is a video frame capture and looks southwest toward the approaching thunderstorm. The storm was rather tame as storms go--mostly lightning and steady rain but no hail or high wind. Not so in southeast Iowa at this moment though--a tornado was reported on the ground there. I safely shot the video from under the overhang of the church's front entrance.

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Destination Mapleton

A beleaguered camera autofocus and buffeting RFD winds blurred this photo of an EF3 tornado approaching the western Iowa town of Mapleton around 7:23 PM, Saturday, April 9, 2011. Visible at the top of this image is the rotating edge of the accompanying wall cloud. The image looks northwest and was shot from the west side of Sumac Avenue, located about 1.4 miles NW of Ute, Iowa and 6.8 miles SE of Mapleton. In minutes Mapleton would sustain damage to 60% of its buildings but thankfully produced no fatalities. Despite the obvious tornado structure seen here, our chase team at this moment was not completely sure of what we were seeing because of the fading daylight, distance and overall debris-wrapped nature of the twister, not showing the classic "elephant trunk" appearance.

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End Of A Long Chase Day

Lightning flashes from the eastern flank of a supercell thunderstorm that had earlier produced several tornadoes in western Iowa on Saturday, April 9, 2011. This view looks northeast along County Road D15, just east of its junction with County Road N33. The lights at lower right down the highway are from the town of Knoke, Iowa, about 1 1/2 miles distant. This was our chase team's final setup from a very successful chase on this day. My son Ryan Alliss and I left Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 11:30 AM on April 9, added another car and six more storm chasers, all Iowa State University meteorology students, and proceeded west where our official chase began just before 5:00 PM. Following the southeast flank of the powerful storm system from Mapleton, Iowa starting at 7:30 PM, we zig-zagged northeastward observing at least six more tornadoes before stopping for our last view at this image's location around 9:47 PM. The desire for a well-deserved rest prevailed, and any further thoughts of continuing the chase were dispelled. The ISU storm chasers were dropped off in Ames just before midnight and Ryan and I arrived back home in Cedar Rapids around 1:45 AM Sunday. Buffeting RFD winds made this 13 second exposure from a tripod very hard to remain stationary. It was shot with an aperture of f/8, ISO of 250 and focal length of 18mm. The lights along the horizon at left are from a nearby wind farm. The ISU storm chasers included Ethan Milius, Bryce Link, Tyler Roney, Nick Carletta, Tristan Morath and Sam Schreier.

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