(Fiery) Sunrise, Sunset

Aided in brilliance by Canadian wildfires on Tuesday, June 30, 2015 were sunrises and sunsets in Iowa. The top image, captured with an iPhone 6 Plus camera at 6:16 am CDT, looks east at the rising sun from North 18th Avenue in Hiawatha, just southeast of Fay Clark Park. The bottom image looks northwest at the setting sun at 7:35 pm from Echo Hill Road, about .3-mile east of C Avenue, north of Marion. Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

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Breathtaking Storm Cell

This remarkable image is actually an Adobe Bridge photomerge of four separate vertically oriented images. The entire width of this structure could not be included in my camera's widest angle (18mm focal length) shooting landscape style, but it was also so immense it cut it off vertically! I was forced to shoot "portrait" style to include its depth. The most intense part of this storm cell was located about 70 miles to the west, at the Marion and Mahaska counties border in Iowa. The leading edge of the anvil was about half as far. Photo(s) shot from Yucca Avenue, a little over a mile east of Ainsworth, Iowa in Washington County at 5:28 pm CDT, Saturday, June 20, 2015. This storm would produce brief pinup tornadoes about two hours later in Henry County to the south. The bright area at upper left is the sun, obscured by the anvil.

Showing the sun a little more clearly in the anvil is the image above, captured at 5:27 pm. Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

My onboard RadarScope view of the storm.

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Funnels, Tornadoes and Rotations

Pulled off the side of US Highway 34 about 3 1/4-miles southeast of Mount Pleasant in Henry
County, Iowa, my daughter and I witnessed the approach of a shelf cloud at 7:18 pm, Saturday,
June 20, 2015. This shelf cloud was not the same as the classic midwest mid-summer outflow
dominated storm. Several small rotating areas occurred on the leading edge of the shelf cloud, producing small and brief funnels (see circled area above). The image looks northwest.

The above image was captured along the highway about .8-mile closer to Mount Pleasant at 7:21 pm.
Direction is southwest. The right circled area is another brief scud-like funnel. Circled area at center was a big surprise. It shows a ghostly pencil shaped tornado, clearly on the ground. This was not visible to our naked eye and was not discovered until photo processing the next day.

This image is a vide frame capture a minute later. The pencil tornado would be located in the rain wrapped area at far left. The circled area above is a funnel hanging below a rotating wall cloud. Movement was right-to-left. At this point very strong inflow winds kicked up a flat piece of metal which caromed off our vehicle and was carried on into the wind toward the left of the picture. Top three images Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

My windshield-mounted Go Pro Hero camera caught this funnel at 7:28 pm looking northwest, as the storm system continued to pass through.

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Ma-Ma-Mammatus!

I have seen larger and more pronounced "globules" and sunlit displays before, but never have I seen the entire sky filled with spectacularly brilliant mammatus formations. In fact, I would consider this spectacle nearly a once-in-a-lifetime event! The mammatus display was the culmination of an afternoon and evening that produced severe weather, including tornadoes, in southern and eastern Iowa. This was also the culmination of a storm chase my daughter and I took part in the aforementioned SE Iowa area earlier. The images were captured at the Culver's restaurant in Hiawatha, Iowa--our post chase meal location--on Saturday, June 20, 2015.  The top image is a three image stitch panorama looking north. The middle image is the same image save one stitch. The bottom image looks west toward North Center Point Road. All images were shot at 8:47 pm CDT. Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

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Triple Teamed

Jupiter (upper left), Venus (upper right) and the moon created a triangular formation in the west sky on Friday evening, June 19, 2015. These two images look west from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at 9:36 pm CDT. Jupiter shown at magnitude -1.83 and Venus at a brilliant -4.38. It is easy to see how some aircraft pilots sometimes mistake the reflected light from Venus as incoming aircraft or even UFOs. Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

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Eerie Environs

The severe portion of a storm cell that contained a slowly-rotating wall cloud had passed north and east of the town of New London in Henry County Iowa on the evening of Sunday, June 7, 2015. I had ended my pursuit of the storm and found a north option (County Highway X23) to eventually return home on US Highway 218. About 6.2 miles north of New London I came upon this scene at Trinity Cemetery along the roadside: a thin strip of daylight showing along the horizon in an otherwise eerie sky setting. A steady rain was falling with intermittent CG lightning, so I didn't tarry too long here. The image above, captured at 6:05 pm CDT, is a two-photo stitch which created a panorama effect and looks north. Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

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A Little Mammatus

While other parts of the sky were clear blue, a northerly glance provided the above image. This two-photo stitch image was captured from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa just after 7:30 pm CDT, Wednesday, June 17, 2015. Moisture amounts aloft were enough to create some moderate amounts of mammatus in the cloud field. Below, the circled area above the white dot (my location) shows the cloud formation signature on radar at this particular moment. Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

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Up Against The Wall (Cloud)

After repositioning from nearby Mount Pleasant, Iowa a short time earlier, a wall cloud formed to my north as I quickly pulled off US Highway 34 about 1.3 miles west of New London, Iowa on Sunday evening, June 7, 2015. These three images captured at a farm located near the curve of 260th Street, about one-tenth mile north of Highway 34, show the changing form of the wall cloud as it moved in an ENE direction (left-to-right in images). The top image, captured at 5:41pm CDT, is a two-stitch image. The middle image was shot at 5:43 pm and the bottom image a minute later. I followed the storm until it passed northeast of New London. The wall cloud did not produce a tornado. Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

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Under The Anvil

This image looks south along US Highway 218 at 160th Street, about 4.3 miles south of the Riverside, Iowa exit on the evening of June 7, 2015. Even though the anvil appears to be overhead, the leading edge is actually about 7 miles distant. I was headed for Henry County, where severe weather was approaching.

The middle image shows a radar capture at the time of the top photo (4:52 pm CDT), with the white dot showing my southbound position in relation to the storm. The green color at upper right is the anvil. Storm movement was to the ENE.

Bottom image, captured about three minutes later, looks generally east while southbound on US Highway 218. Mammatus formations can be seen under the local storm cell anvil. Along the horizon at center, the updraft of another storm cell can be seen. This storm was located some 90 miles to the northeast, in southern Whiteside County, Illinois. Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

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Chasing One Cell, Glancing At Another

Although my objective on this chase (Sunday, June 7, 2015) was southeast Iowa and a storm cell progressing eastward in that area, casting a few glances to my left also proved rewarding. The updraft (right) of the huge storm cell seen in the image above was located in Whiteside County, Illinois, about six miles SE of Clinton, Iowa. Its enormous anvil splayed out from the updraft some 25 miles to the northeast, stretching into Carroll County, Illinois. This image was captured at 4:24 pm CDT. Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

Above is a radar capture of the moment. My position is indicated by a white dot. The white arrow points to the storm cell seen in the top photograph. The chase objective storm can bee seen at lower left.

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Incoming Scud!

Severe Thunderstorm Watch 269 (above) was posted by the SPC for southern Iowa at 3:35 pm, Sunday, June 7, 2015. Thunderstorms were already firing up near the Lamoni, Iowa area at this time. I began monitoring the storm's progress east to determine whether a chase would be merited as it neared the southeast portion of the state. Just after 4:00 I decided to go, packing up my chasing gear and leaving Cedar Rapids via Interstate 380 south. Southern skies quickly darkened and the leading storm cell became severe-warned by the time I entered Henry County a little after 5:00 pm.

Around 5:25 pm I took up a spotter's position at South Iris Street near East Washington Street (US Highway 34) in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, as seen in the photograph above. The photo looks southwest at a severe-warned storm cell, approaching from about 7 miles distance at 5:28 pm. Accompanying the photo above is a radar screen capture of the moment. The white dot is my position.

Shortly after 5:30 pm I decided to reposition east and it was a good decision. Eastbound (actually to the SE) on US Highway 34, with the storm looming over my shoulder, I pulled off the road at 260th Street, about 1.3 miles west of New London, Iowa and shortly found a fantastic vantage point to photograph the forming wall cloud north of me (above). The storm was moving left-to-right in the image. RFD winds were enough to send me scrambling after my hat as it passed by! Also above is a radar capture of the moment with the white dot as my position. All told, the chase trip lasted about 3 1/2 hours and 179.8 miles. Photos captured from Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

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Red Blazer Sunset

Letting the dog out on Wednesday evening, June 3, 2015 brought notice to an unusual sky glow seen behind trees at Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. A closer inspection and armed with the camera in a more open area of the park eventually captured the two images seen above. Both images were photographed at 8:52 pm CDT. The top image is a two-photo stitch (Adobe Bridge photo merge process). Official sunset was at 8:37 pm. Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

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