Let It Storm? Let It Storm? Let It Storm?

This day on Wednesday, December 23, 2015 should have been a white snowy landscape in Iowa. Instead, it was 55 degrees F with a nearly identical dew point. Even more amazing was the fact that the Storm Prediction Center issued Tornado Watch 561 covering areas in three midwestern states just before 3:00 pm CST. The watch box's northern boundary stretched nearly to Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Though no tornadoes would materialize in the Cedar Rapids area, an approaching thunderstorm (above) was seen in this image of the SW sky from Bowman Woods Park at 3:33 pm.

At 3:35 pm, a bank of convective clouds, more indicative of spring or summer, stretched across the northwest sky, seen here behind Bowman Woods Elementary School.

The thunderstorm is almost upon this location on Brentwood Drive NE at 4:43 pm. Christmas decorations in the foreground of the image give the moment an almost surreal appearance.

A testament to the abnormal weather conditions of the month and day is this image of my Vantage Vue weather station at 4:08 pm. 22 confirmed tornadoes in five states--two rated at EF3--would drop from this system. A Particularly Dangerous Situation (PDS), infrequent even in the springtime, was issued by the SPC for parts of Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee during the event. Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.