Convective Cumulus

This cumulus tower was located northeast of the town of Postville, in northeastern Iowa at 4:07 PM CDT on Sunday, May 17, 2015. The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) had earlier in the day posted an Enhanced Risk for this area, but downgraded it to Slight before this image was captured. The building at right background is a Cenex convenience store on West Tilden Street (US Highway 18).

The image above is the same cell as the top photo, but much farther away-about 23 miles distant in northern Allamakee County, Iowa. Time was 4:15 PM. The scene was viewed on US Highway 52  from about 2.6 miles SE of Postville. The structure of the storm cell reminded me very much of the atomic bomb test mushroom cloud photo taken during Operation Crossroads at Bikini Atoll in 1946.

This image was captured along US Highway 52 about a minute after the middle shot was taken. Nikon
D5000 DSLR camera.

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Altocumulus Spring Sky

A pronounced altocumulus undulatus sky graced a very springlike landscape in Bowman Woods
Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 8:35 am CDT, on Saturday, May 2, 2015. This type of cloud
formation is often a harbinger for precipitation, and indeed rain arrived here about 24 hours later. Nikon D5000 DSLR.

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Rainy Construction Zone

A line of thundershowers with intermittent heavy rain passed through the Des Moines metro area just after 4:00 pm CDT on Sunday, May 11, 2015. This view, eastbound in a construction zone on Interstate 80 near the Altoona, Iowa exit, shows those conditions at 4:23 pm. Temperature was 68
degrees with a 63 degree dew point. Two and a half hours after this line passed through, several weak tornadoes dropped in northwest Iowa. Nikon D5000 DSLR.

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May 6 Northern Linn County Iowa Garden Variety Thunderstorm

A thin and weak line of approaching thunderstorms produced these rain shafts around 3:57 pm CDT,
Wednesday, May 6, 2015. The location here was at the entrance of Wendling Quarries, about 1.8
miles SE of Troy Mills, Iowa in northern Linn County. The camera looks west.

Another view of the line of storms, this time looking SW from Hitaga Road, about .2-mile north of
Paris Road (County Road D66) in northern Linn County. Time was 4:19 pm.

This image was captured looking SW at 4:25 pm, just as the rains began to fall. Location was Justins Road at North Alburnett Road (County Road W58), northwest of Central City, Iowa. Nikon D5000
DSLR camera.

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