Gusting In

The southern sky at Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa grew steadily blacker beginning around 6:30 PM, Wednesday, August 8, 2012 as a shelf cloud approached at the head of a gust front. Although looking very impressive, winds never got above 30 mph and rainfall only amounted to about 0.08 inch. The top image looks south at the shelf cloud from the park around 6:45 PM. The middle image looks east over our roof as the shelf cloud was passing overhead around 6:53 PM. The 6:49 PM NWS Quad Cities radar image at bottom shows the bow echo front and its relation to Cedar Rapids.