Catching Some Rays

This cumulus tower, spiking around 50,000 feet, was still reflecting sunlight some 12 minutes after sunset as seen in the east sky around 8:50 PM, Wednesday, July 18, 2012. Camera location was at Archer Drive in the new Bowman Meadows housing development in Marion, Iowa, with the tower located about 50 miles away, close to the town of Delmar near the border of Jackson and Clinton counties. The billowing cloud proved to be a teaser however, refusing to drop much needed rain here. Where rain did fall was in the extreme northeast part of the state--nearly an inch in some places. My home thermometer showed a peak temperature of 100.2 degrees F at 2:48 PM on this day. Iowa City recorded an official temp of 104 degrees! The bottom image shows the Quad Cities National Weather Service radar at 8:50 PM CDT.