Ominious Looking Approach

This approaching storm cell looked especially ominous as it was backlit by the sun on Tuesday afternoon, May 27, 2014. This view looks west through Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids and was making my mowing of our backyard a difficult proposition as it changed form, prompting me to stop what I was doing and photograph it every few minutes. The top image was captured at 4:51 PM CDT,  and the bottom image five minutes later. This cell brought heavy rain and cloud-to-cloud lightning.

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Picturesque Storm Cell

This storm cell, though not severe, billowed to this striking appearance on Tuesday afternoon, May 27, 2014 as seen from White Road, just west of North Marion Road and about 4 miles north of Marion, Iowa. In the top image, taken at 3:45 PM CDT, the nearer line of clouds were located about 30 miles to the northwest in southeast Blackhawk County. The farther line of clouds was located about 55 miles distant, stretching across Bremer and Fayette counties. The bottom image shows the storm cell as it appeared 10 minutes later in a close up. Cloud tops were reaching 35-40,000 feet.

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Wall Cloud Mimickers

What at first glance might have appeared to some as a tornadic wall cloud on Tuesday, May 20, 2014 was in reality just low-hanging scud clouds. This storm cell, although severe enough to drop up to quarter size hail, was not a rotator. The top image looks northwest at 7:20 PM CDT from C Avenue just south of County Home Road and about 1.5 miles east of Robins, Iowa. The bottom image looks west from St. Peters Road at 7:36 PM, about .2-mile north of Midway Road and about 2.5 miles north of Robins. Temperature was 79 degrees and dew point 63 degrees for both images.

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Joe Camelopardalids Weren't Cool

The Camerlopardalids meteor shower was a bust. Its peak time was supposed to be 2:00 AM, Saturday, May 24, 2014. Some projected the shower, a product of dust and debris from the tail of Comet 209P/Linear as it passed into Earth's orbit, at 200 an hour. It was less than that. I spent about one hour and 45 minutes of outdoor observation time at the location seen above--Echo Hill Presbyterian Church just north of Marion, Iowa--and saw a grand total of six meteor streaks. All of them were dim or medium-dim in brightness, and the only one that registered on my camera was this one. It was shot at 2:10 AM and was a 30-second exposure at f/3.5, 640 ISO and 18mm focal length and looks north. Conditions were a chilly 55 degrees F made even chillier with a slight breeze, making the lack of action even more difficult to watch.

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Incoming And Outgoing

This severe storm cell, whose cloud tops were reaching 40-45,000 feet, is seen in its approach and
departure from my spotting position on Tuesday evening, May 20, 2014. The location was on St.
Peters Road, about .2-mile north of Midway Road, and about 2.5 miles north of Robins, Iowa. The top image was captured at 7:34 PM CDT and looks NW. The middle image shows the cell, bloated with turbulence, in the southern sky after it had passed overhead at 7:43 PM. Both moments were accompanied by dangerous lightning, and torrential rain and pea size hail followed after image two. The bottom image is a radar screen capture showing base reflectivity and echo tops in relation to my spotting position (indicated with a white cross).

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Prelude To Hail

The top image shows an approaching rain shaft emanating from beneath a severe-warned cell whose tops at this moment were spiking to 45-50,000 feet. The time was 4:55 PM CDT and the place was Reamer Road, just north of Central City Road (County Highway E16) in north central Linn County, Iowa. Highway E16 can be seen in the background at left. This spotting position was about 3.5 miles northwest of Alburnett, and about 6.3 miles west of Central City. About five minutes after the top image was captured, intermittent hail began to fall, some quarter size as seen in the bottom image, gathered on the hood of my car minutes later. The sporadic nature of the hail fall (as opposed to pelting hail) was probably due to the stones being thrown out of the storm cell's updraft some distance.

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Sunrays And Rainshafts

The combination of lights and darks made for striking contrasting sky appearances on the evening of Friday, May 16, 2014, just north of Marion, Iowa. Rainshafts and sunrays mingled together creating the images seen above. All images look northwest from North Alburnett Road (County Road W58). The top image, shot at 7:25 PM CDT, was located about .3-mile south of County Home Road. The middle image was captured at 7:28 PM and was located about .3-mile north of County Home Road at the Pioneer Hi-Bred Corn Research Station. The bottom image was shot at 7:23 PM near the intersection of Pinehurst Drive. Temperatures were a chilly 47 degrees F with 60% humidity.

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Fizzled Out

Like many of the severe storms that have approached the Cedar Rapids, Iowa area during the past few years, this one fizzled out just before reaching it on the afternoon of Monday, May 12, 2014. The location here was on White Road, .3-mile west of North Marion Road, and about four miles north of Marion, Iowa. The top image of approaching clouds, looking SW, was captured at 3:50 PM CDT; the bottom, looking west, at 4:00 PM.

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Distant Storm Cells

This storm cell on the evening of Sunday, May 11, 2014 still appeared impressive even at a long distance from the camera--in this case located on Archer Drive in the new Bowman Meadows housing development in Marion, Iowa. Both images shown above look southeast. The top image, which includes a nearly full moon, looks toward the storm system when it was about 100 miles distant near Ottawa, Illinois and was captured at 7:22 PM CDT. The system had earlier produced tornado warnings as it proceeded east in southern Iowa. The bottom image was shot earlier--at 5:17 PM--when the system was about 75 miles away in Louisa County, Iowa.

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Photogenic In Appearance But Weak In Output

A severe thunderstorm watch was posted in Eastern Iowa counties at 1:00 PM on Monday, May 12, 2014 as a line of storms moved to the northeast from south-central Iowa. By 3:50 PM the line of storms had this appearance (top image) as seen from White Road, .3-mile west of North Marion Road, and about 4 miles north of Marion, Iowa. The scud lowering at far left had a pseudo-wall cloud look. A play of a short video clip of this structure confirmed that no rotation took place. Despite the fact that the middle image looks very swirly, no rotation took place there either. One thing I did have to look out for was lightning--some of the shots I captured during this spotting event took place inside the car! The bottom image is a radar screen capture taking place at the same moment as the top image. An arrow points to the approaching cell from my position.

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Trails, Beehives And Martians

The top image is a stacked group of 45 30-second exposures at f/5, 320 ISO and 18mm focal length. Total duration for the images was from 9:42-10:15 PM CDT, Friday, May 9, 2014. The image looks west over Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The five bright streaks above the treeline are, from left: star Procyon, planet Jupiter, star Pollux, star Castor and star Capella. A streak from aircraft lights extends lightly from the middle to the upper right of the image. The middle photo is one of the 45 stacked images, this one shot at 9:42 PM. Lightly visible at upper center left is the ghostly looking Beehive Cluster. The bottom image, looking south, shows the planet Mars (center) bathed in the light of the half-moon at 10:17 PM from the same location as the top two images.

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Hiawatha Sunrise

A lone bird flies into a colorful sunrise as seen from near Progress Drive in Hiawatha, Iowa
around 6:20 AM CDT, Thursday, May 8, 2014. Weather conditions had finally turned a bit muggy--
68 degrees F with 83% humidity, and indeed a thundershower mover through the area a couple hours later.

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Cumulus Tower From Hiawatha

This isolated cumulus tower made for a beautiful sight on Wednesday morning, May 7, 2014 as seen at 8:24 AM CDT from near Progress Drive and Martha's Way in Hiawatha, Iowa. The cloud tops on this small cell rose to 35-40,000 feet. The cell was located about 10 miles away in southeast Linn County. The cloud was a precursor to severe weather in much of the state the following day.

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A Heavenly Sight In Marion

Sunset with clouds provided this "heavenly" sight in Marion, Iowa around 7:07 PM CDT, Friday, May 2, 2014. The location was the intersection of 13th Street and 8th Avenue in downtown Marion. Church steeple silhouettes seen in the background are: First United Methodist Church (left) and First Presbyterian Church.

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From Below And From Above

Large crisscrossing aircraft contrails were both evident from the ground and even from space on Saturday morning, May 3, 2014. The top image was captured from Brentwood Drive NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 9:00 AM CDT. The bottom image is a screen capture from a satellite image around 9:30 AM clearly showing the contrails within the state.

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