Underachieving Bow Echo Storm

With the eastern third of Iowa and most of Wisconsin and Illinois under a tornado watch since 12:30 PM CDT on Thursday, May 30, 2013, anticipation for the arrival of significant weather in the Cedar Rapids, Iowa metro area was felt. What arrived, however, was a garden variety bow echo storm in which wind speeds never exceeded 30 mph at Echo Hill Presbyterian Church in Marion, where the top two images were captured. They show the approach of a shelf cloud from the southwest with C Avenue in the background. Rain and some lightning accompanied the passing of the storm. A corresponding DVN radar screen is shown at bottom.

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Mammatus For All Tastes

Mammatus of different shapes and colors graced the skies of Marion, Iowa on the evening of Tuesday,May 28, 2013. The formations began to appear after 7:30 PM as the underside of the anvil of a severe-warned storm located about 60 miles away in southern Washington County slid eastward. The top two images, taken at 7:54 and 7:58 PM, look northwest from Archer Drive in the Bowman Meadows housing development. The lower mammatus image, shot around 8:00 PM, looks the opposite direction and shows a dark gray shade. Also visible at lower left is a string of cumulus towers located about 60 miles to the east in Clinton County near the Mississippi River. The bottom image shows a radar perspective of the same time period. Mammatus exist in a very moist and unstable middle or upper level in the atmosphere, overlying a drier layer below an anvil produced by an adjacent cumulonimbus.

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North Skunk River In Iowa Overflows

Heavy and prolonged rain caused the North Skunk River in Iowa to overflow its banks on Sunday afternoon, May 26, 2013. These images, shot around 6:15 PM, show the flooding as seen from Interstate 80 near Mile Mark 176 between Newton and Grinnell and look southeast. The top image shows farm land just west of the river, middle image at the river and the bottom image just east of the river. Many parts of central and eastern Iowa were under flash flood warnings on this day.

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CC Activity In Passing Storm Cell

Cloud-to-cloud (CC) lightning emanates from a passing storm cell around 9:13 PM, Sunday, May 19, 2013 in this view (top image) looking west from the parking lot at Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The trailing edge of the storm, located about 30 miles distant in Benton County, can be seen at left. The storm was moving to the northeast and missed this location. The bottom image is a radar screen capture of the same moment showing the camera's position (white arrow) and the storm's track (red arrow). Top image is a 16 second exposure at f/9, 200 ISO and 18mm focal length.

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Planetary Triumvirate

The planets Jupiter (left center in image), Venus (lower) and Mercury (right of Venus) were gathering for a close conjunction beginning on the evening of Thursday, May 23, 2013. Venus and Mercury are setting into the haze of the horizon. This image, shot around 9:30 PM, shows their triangular formation in the WNW sky as seen from Christ Community United Methodist Church in Marion, Iowa. Lights from traffic in the background are on East Main Street. The planets gather even closer in the next few nights. Viewing them here though, may be a big challenge as cloudy skies with rain promise to be dominant in the weather forecast. Jupiter is shown at magnitude -1.92, Venus at -3.90 and Mercury at -1.01. This image is a 2-second exposure at f/9, 320 ISO and 55mm focal length. The star seen at top is 1.62 magnitude Elnath in the constellation Auriga.

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Teasing Sky That Never Materialized

As we headed to our cars following our softball game at Noelridge Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on the evening of Monday, May 20, 2013, the sky in certain directions appeared tantalizing. With reports of advancing severe weather in Central Iowa to the west conditions promised to be advantageous for some photo opportunities. This however was about the best it would get on this night as the storms from the west lost energy and died out at Cedar Rapids' doorstep. This image shows mammatus formations at about 20,000 feet on the underside of an anvil belonging to a storm system to the ESE and looks over Harding Middle School, location near the ball diamonds at Noelridge Park. Photo capture time was about 8:15 PM. Below is a radar screen capture comparable to the image above with the white arrow showing the camera's view.

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As The Moore, Oklahoma Tragedy Unfolded

Watching in utter amazement as another violent tornado entered the unfortunate town of Moore, Oklahoma live from my TV set on Monday afternoon, May 20, 2013, I was compelled to capture images from the screen from my camera as the tragic event unfolded. The upper left image shows the twister as it was approaching the city. The last two images at lower right show the tornado as it went from a strong cone shape to an ultra-thin rope in just two minutes. I was watching the coverage on The Weather Channel from my home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The tornado, which killed 24 people and may have been two miles wide at one point, was rated an EF5. Moore was also devastated by an F5 tornado on May 3, 1999 and hit again by an F4 tornado on May 8, 2003.

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Distant Flashes

I was filled with anticipation as I spotted for severe weather on the grounds at Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa after 9:00 PM CDT on Monday, May 20, 2013. Funnel clouds had been reported in the Des Moines area after 7:00 PM and severe weather was advancing as close as Tama County to the west. As storms reached Cedar Rapids, however, they quickly died. The line of storms stretched from the SW to the NE and allowed the top two images to be captured. They look northwest at lightning flashes in a storm cell located about 30 miles distant, in southern Buchanan County. In the background at right is 74th Street NE. The images are 25 second exposures at f/7.1, 200 ISO and 18mm focal length. Below is a radar screen capture of the same moment in time as the images shown above.

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Not Much, But Something

On a day when a record was broken for the most days in a row without a tornado in Iowa--held since 1956--the line of thundershowers that moved through the area at least provided some photo opportunities. In a decidedly uneventful year of thunderstorms so far, these thundershowers moved through the Cedar Rapids, Iowa area around 4:30 PM, Wednesday, May 15, 2013. The top image shows rain shafts beneath storm clouds that have just passed east of Archer Drive in the Bowman Meadows housing development in Marion around 4:37 PM. The middle image is a radar screen capturecomparable to the time of the top image. Despite low-energy atmospheric conditions (humidity 52%, dew point 56 degrees) the cloud structure in the bottom image managed to form striations. Cloud tops here reached about 30,000-35,000 feet. This image looks east from the eastern border of Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids around 4:50 PM.

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Veiled Crescent Moon

A waxing crescent moon stood out in the night sky around 9:45 PM on Monday, May 13, 2013 due to a thin veil of clouds over it. The veil created a luminous aura around the setting moon. This view looks through trees at Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. About 50% of the night sky was covered by clouds. This image is a two-second exposure at f/5.6, 1600 ISO and 200mm focal length.

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Big Error Provided Some Good Shows

What's a camping trip with the tent fabric but no tent poles? A night out under the stars. The distance to the "Little Paint" campground in the Yellow River Forest area of Northeast Iowa from Cedar Rapids is about 85 miles. That is why when I discovered upon arriving with our family that I had forgotten the bag of tent poles we had the choice of turning around and going home or sleeping out under the stars. We finally decided the latter, even though it was in October. It turned out to be a good choice. The temperature never got below the 50s (a day later a cold front arrived) and we were treated to a nice Northern Lights display (top image). The image was taken around 10:00 PM, Friday, October 10, 1997 using a picnic table as a base. I overheard neighboring campers remarking they "hadn't seen Northern Lights like that in a long time," then saw what they were talking about. The reds in the Aurora display correspond to molecules of nitrogen while the greens are oxygen. Also seen during the night because of no tent ceiling obstruction were two simultaneous meteors streaking outward from the same source in the form of a "V."

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Eta Aquarids Weren't Quite Done Yet

The half-hour time block from 4:00-4:30 AM on Tuesday, May 7, 2013 was rather active for the remainder of the Eta Aquarids meteor shower. The peak viewing time for this shower was over the weekend but local clouds prevented that opportunity here. A single meteor streak capture can be seen at upper left. What appears to be a bright meteor at bottom, just right of the left-most large tree, was in fact unidentified. It was slow moving and probably an aircraft of some kind. The meteor travelled upward, away from its apparent radiant point (cluster of stars just above and left of the right tree) in the constellation Aquarius. This view looks east over our backyard from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Temperature was around 50 degrees F. The image, shot around 4:15 AM, is a 30-second exposure at f/3.5, 400 ISO and 18mm focal length.

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