Soaring Mother Ship

I had been chasing from Cedar Rapids to catch up with a severe-warned storm cell that was located just SW of the Interstate 380/Interstate 80 interchange around 5:00 pm CDT, Tuesday, July 28, 2015. As I reached it, it suddenly dropped below severe levels. But all was not lost as another, even larger cell was eastbound southeast of Des Moines. I set up spotting shop in one of my favorite locations on Yucca Avenue, which is .1-mile south of Highway 92 and about 1.8-mile east of the town of Ainsworth in Washington County. Exiting my car there at about 6:00 pm, my eyes were met with a near-classic "mother ship" storm structure to the west. The top image shows that hurried shot, which was aggravated by the fact that my camera's viewfinder and lens immediately fogged up. Going from an air-conditioned car to an outdoor 82 degree-temperature, 77 degree dew point and 84% humidity will do that! Furious wiping of the lens produced the second and third images a minute later. The third image is actually four stitched photos creating a panorama effect. All three images look northwest at the structure, whose most intense area was located about 86 miles away, just a few miles southwest of Knoxville in Marion County. Echo tops in that area soared to around 65,000 feet! Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

Above is a radar image of the moment. The most intense part of the storm cell and my position in Washington County are illustrated.

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Photographing Daytime Lightning--The Ben Franklin Way

Capturing lightning with a camera during daytime can best be achieved by using an expensive lightning sensor trigger. I did not have this available on the evening of Tuesday, July 28, 2015 as a severe thunderstorm approached my position near Ainsworth, Iowa, so I had to resort to more basic means. Unlike night lightning, where one can keep the shutter open for several seconds, day lightning captures require high shutter speeds. The only method I could think of with the resources at my disposal was to use a feature of my Nikon D5000 DSLR camera to my advantage. That was the fact that when the shutter button is held down, a rapid succession of three shots occur. Also, lightning often flickers on, then off, then on again due to return strokes along its path. The focus was in manual mode, camera hand held, with my finger on the shutter waiting for the moment of the first flash. In some instances, with patience and luck, one of the three quick-fire shots captured a bolt.

The first lightning image, shown above, emanated from a rain shaft north of my position on Yucca Avenue, about .1-mile south of Highway 92 and about 1.8 miles east of Ainsworth. Time was 6:49 pm.

This lightning bolt was part of a severe-warned line of storms approaching from the west. Time was 7:40 pm.

Probably the most striking (pardon the pun) of the three images, this bolt emanates from a obvious point in a high-based cloud ten minutes later. Although it appears to strike a barn, the bolt was in fact much more distant. The lights of Ainsworth can be seen at right center.

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Hot July Day Storm Cell

On a day in which the NWS in the Quad Cities issued a heat index advisory, the sandpit volleyball tournament at the Oakland Church of the Nazarene in Cedar Rapids went on as scheduled Saturday afternoon, July 25, 2015. With temperatures at 87 degrees, dew point at 74 degrees and 65% humidity, isolated storm cells began popping up in Eastern Iowa. The storm cell seen above in the southeast sky during a timeout in volleyball play was located some 47 miles distant in Muscatine County, about ten miles west of Muscatine, Iowa.

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(Fair)ly Gorgeous Sky

The setting sun behind light rain clouds produced this brilliant pinkish-orange sky as seen from an outdoor Matt Maher concert on Wednesday, July 15, 2015. The concert was one of several performing at the Delaware County Fair near Manchester, Iowa. Photo was captured at 8:41 pm using my iPhone 6-plus camera.

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Out Of The Blue

Virtually the only activity in the state of Iowa at the time, this storm cell was definitely an isolated one. Though not severe-warned, echo tops were reaching around 40,000 feet and catching the rising sun. Both images above look north at 6:15 am CDT on Friday, July 17, 2015 from N. 15th Avenue in Hiawatha, Iowa. The storm was located about 45 miles away, in southeast Fayette County, just east of Oelwein, and moving in an easterly direction. iPhone 6-plus camera.

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AM, PM Storm Cells

An SPC "Enhanced Risk" posted for much of Eastern Iowa for the afternoon/evening/overnight of Sunday, July 12, 2015 produced nary a droplet of rain for the Cedar Rapids metro area. A "cry wolf" syndrome seemed to be in place when the storm cell seen at top began drifting southeastward from Minnesota into Eastern Iowa (radar images above) around 5:00 am on Monday, July 13. As it drew nearer to Cedar Rapids the cell displayed itself in a spectacular manner--an anvil skirted with
a shelf cloud. The top image shows this storm and is a six-image stitch captured by my iPhone 6-plus
camera. Photomerging was done in Adobe Bridge. The image looks north from North 15th Avenue in Hiawatha, Iowa at 6:20 am. The cell was at this moment located about 40 miles to the northeast in north central Delaware County. Echo tops were reaching around 50,000 feet.

The day was not done. Temperatures in the low 90s, dew points in the upper 70s and humidities in the mid-60s made conditions ripe for redevelopment. Cumulonimbus towers began to erupt northeast of Cedar Rapids after 3:30 pm (radar images above), creating the classic mushroom clouds from strong updrafts. The two images above show an older cumulonimbus in the background and a new and growing tower in the foreground. Nikon D5000 DSLR camera looks east along Boyson Road at the border of Cedar Rapids and Marion, Iowa. Top image captured at 4:46 pm and middle at 4:50. The most intense part of this storm was located about 40-45 miles away in western Clinton County. Echo tops were spiking to around 55,000 feet. By 7:00 pm this severe-warned cell was 110 miles away in Stark County, Illinois, southeast of Kewanee, in the territory of an SPC "Moderate Risk."

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Ground Smoke Effects

Canadian wildfires continue to influence sky brilliance and even air pollution in Iowa. The two images above show sunrise at 6:14 am on Tuesday, July 7, 2015, as seen from Boyson Road, just west of Interstate 380 in Hiawatha. Smoke from the wildfires was borne by a northern cold front and actually pushed it toward the ground, making its odor noticeable and resulting in low air quality advisories. iPhone 6-plus camera.

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Rockets Red Glare

These Independence Day fireworks images, looking north from First Street SW, between Second and Third avenues in downtown Cedar Rapids, Iowa, capture some of the scenes of the event held on Saturday, July 4, 2015. The top image is a three-image stack shot at 10:02 pm CDT. The middle image was shot at 10:06 pm and the bottom (a two-image stack) at 10:04 pm. This popular annual event began at 9:45 pm and lasted for about a half hour. Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

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More Augmented Sunsets

Canadian wildfires far to the north continued to enhance sunsets in Iowa on the evening of Friday,
July 3, 2015. The scene above looks northwest from Arabian Road, less than a mile southwest of the town of Alburnett at 8:19 pm CDT.

This view looks toward the same direction at 8:24 pm along Alburnett Road, about 2.13 miles north of County Home Road, north of Marion, Iowa. Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

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Brilliant Morning Light

A light rain and a thin veil of cloud cover was enough to let enough sunlight through to produce these brilliant sunrise images. Weather conditions also produced a brief and somewhat dull rainbow. All three images look east from Brentwood Drive NE in Cedar Rapids on Wednesday, June 24, 2015. The top two were captured at 5:32 am CDT, the bottom at 5:35 am. Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

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All Day Mammatus

Harbingers of severe weather, mammatus formations showed themselves through most of day in Eastern Iowa on Saturday, June 20, 2015, appearing as early as 8:30 am. The atmosphere was rife
with moisture all day and it showed. As a severe-warned storm cell approached the position seen in the three images above, myriad mammatus festooned the underside of its enormous anvil. Spotting position here was on 260th Street, .1-mile north of US Highway 34, about 1.3-mile west of the town of New London. The top image looks northwest at 6:19 pm. The middle image faces south at 6:41 pm and the bottom image at 6:43 pm. Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

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