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.