Not All Warm And Fuzzy

Looking benignly "fluffy" from 35 miles away, the storm that was manufacturing these clouds was anything but. The updraft was lifting the clouds to an altitude of 50,000-55,000 feet. Beneath the storm cell in northern Delaware County, Iowa were flash flood warnings and even a small funnel cloud sighted near the town of Manchester. The top two images--facing northeast from the Pioneer Marion Research Center--shows the cumulonimbus reflecting the fading sunlight around 8:32 PM, Monday, July 8, 2013. Sunset was at 8:43 PM. The camera's position was along North Alburnett Road, about .3-mile north of County Home Road intersection and about three miles north of Marion, Iowa. The bottom image shows the position of the camera in relation to a radar screen capture of the moment.