Plain Ominous

Just beyond the river plain in the foreground of this image is an approaching and intensifying supercell. Last vestiges of blue sky and sunlight are about to be covered up by it. The time was 5:50 PM on Saturday, April 9, 2011. The supercell had begun to form in eastern Nebraska just after 5:00 PM. The system would spawn a string of tornadoes in northwest Iowa, starting a little over an hour and a half later with the Mapleton, Iowa tornado--22 miles to the northeast of this location (on Cherry Avenue, just .1 mile south of Highway 175 and about 2.8 miles west of Onawa). This view looks southwest toward the Missouri river, about 3 miles distant. Highway 175 runs just in front of the tree line in the background. The two communication towers seen at lower right are located in Decatur, Nebraska, just on the other side of the river.

Read more...

Safe and Dry from Thunderstorm

Just a few feet under the entrance overhang at Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa kept me safe and dry from a thunderstorm with heavy rain that was raging around 9:40 PM, Friday, July 22, 2011. This view looks south across the church's parking lot toward a retail area near C Avenue and Boyson Road NE. The thunderstorm was occurring behind a gust front that blew through about a half-hour earlier. This image was the product of an eight-second exposure at f/14, 200 ISO and 18mm focal length.

Read more...

Radar Suggested Otherwise...

Although research from later radar images showed no rotation in the specific area and instead suggested an intense rain or hail shaft, the distant dark area (with lightning bolt) in this image resembles a tornado. This is a video frame capture and looks north on Keystone Avenue at 330th Street, about 8 miles south of Ida Grove in northwest Iowa. Standing in the foreground at lower left is storm chaser Nick Carletta. The time was about 8:10 PM on Saturday, April 9, 2011 and the sky was totally dark, but incessant flashes of lightning allowed image captures such as this one. Accompanying the lightning were sustained RFD winds of 50-60 mph.

Read more...

Critter's-Eye-View of Dynamic Clouds in Hiawatha

This colorful view of morning clouds is seen from Progress Drive in Hiawatha, Iowa around 7:25 AM, Thursday, July 28, 2011. This northeast view looks over clumps of sumac, a cornfield and a hidden Interstate 380 (just behind the horizon, about a quarter mile distant). At right is a forming cumulonimbus cloud. Thunderstorms arrived at this location about an hour an a half later.

Read more...

Phosphorescent Sky

These clouds overlooking Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 8:45 PM, Saturday, July 23, 2011 had a rather phosphorescent appearance as low light from the day's sunset reflected off them. This spectacular view looks west.

Read more...

Surf's Up?

Looking like a large wave about to break onto shore, this shelf cloud moves relentlessly forward toward Noelridge Christian Church (right) in NE Cedar Rapids, Iowa at 9:00 PM, Friday, July 22, 2011. This view looks due north. Until about this moment the leading edge of this gust front was silent in its steady and swift advance from the northwest, but winds soon began to pick up. The front was gobbling up all the hot and muggy air in front of it. This is a 3-second exposure at f/5.6, 200 ISO and 18mm focal length.

Read more...

Cloud Eclipses Cloud

The anvil of one cumulonimbus cloud obscures another in this scene from Lininger Park in Marion, Iowa around 5:20 PM, Tuesday, July 26, 2011. The underside of the anvil cloud in the foreground contains a smattering of mammatus, which often form in this type of environment--a result of very moist and unstable middle or upper level air, overlying a drier layer. The "eclipsing" of the calvus cloud in the background prevented me from seeing all of its swiftly rising tower. This view looks southeast.

Read more...