Storms began to form in north-central Iowa near the town of Estherville around 1:20 pm CDT, Thursday, July 13, 2023 and began to track to the southeast. By 2:20 pm this line of storms went severe warned and continued on its heading, which was in the general direction of the Cedar Rapids area. Although the line of storms lost its severe warning while in the Franklin and Butler County areas around 4:20 pm, I thought it still might have the potential for some good camera captures. I chose a good open spotting location at Lowe Park in Marion, Iowa (42° 4'5.39"N, 91°36'33.24"W). Since I was not expecting anything special from this approaching storm from a spotting perspective, I only brought my bare minimum gear (hand held weather radio and ham transceiver). The above panoramic image looks north with the storm about 40 miles distant and moving about 32 mph.
5:02 pm. Looking north over a soybean field and the storm continues to press forward.
Panorama at 5:14 pm. Storm is growing on the north and northwest horizon, and it base is beginning to darken.
Radarscope image for 5:15 pm, corresponding to the panoramic image above it. The most intense area of the storm at this time was at its western flank between Gilbertville and La Porte City, containing a hail core. The blue target icon is my location near Marion, Iowa.
5:17 pm. A considerably more ominous sky to the northwest. Parents and their children continued to watch and play ball at the park's diamonds. The storm was now located about 30 miles distant, just northwest of the town of Brandon.
5:36 pm. Northern half of the sky now dominated by dark clouds.
5:45 pm. Approaching storm with one of the park's two parabolic "whisper dishes" in the left foreground.
5:45 pm. A "selfie" from the park's stainless steel "gazing ball," including the reflection of the storm behind me.
5:46 pm. Bright wild flowers contrast with the dark approaching storm in this image looking north.
5:57 pm. Vertical image, showing storm updraft.
6:02 pm. Looking west at the more intense area of the line of storms. Parents and children had finally heeded the threat, and were packing up to go home.
6:03 pm. Radarscope image corresponding to the image above it. Hail core was located between the towns of Vinton and Urbana.
6:06 pm. Line of storms now taking on a shelf cloud appearance as seen in this panorama looking northwest.
6:13 pm. Looking east at the eastern flank of the line of storms. The storm was moving left-to-right in this image. The western flank regained its severe warning around 6:15 pm.
6:17 pm. Ominous looking storm panorama with hail core, but mostly tracking to my west. Attenders to ball games had mostly departed by this time!
6:18 pm. Looking southwest. Leading edge of the storm almost upon me, but still mostly to my west.
6:18 pm radar capture, showing the eastern part of the storm almost upon my location.
6:19 pm. Panoramic version. A shaft of rain is illuminated by the sun toward the left.
6:20 pm. Storm continues to advance to my west. Note the illuminated rain shaft. The most intense area of the storm system was farther to the west--near the town of Van Horne in Benton County.
6:21 pm. Corresponding radar image.
6:48 pm. Looking northeast at the trailing edge of the eastern flank of my storm. Clearing skies toward left (northwest).
6:48 pm. Panoramic view to the east (left) and south (right). Storm cell can be seen in the background toward the right. An attached inflow cloud is to the left. My spotting vehicle is in the foreground.
6:51 pm. Closeup of the storm feature looking southeast. This cell was located near Mount Vernon, Iowa.
6:52 pm. Similar image with pronounced inflow cloud. Despite more intense weather to my east and west, at my location here I only experienced about ten minutes of rain downpours, but with no hail, and wind speeds never exceeded 40 mph. Great storm photo opps with no damage--best case spotting scenario! Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.
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