Dangerous Road To Arthur

The dark funnel of a wedge tornado, made visible by a flash of lightning, looms in the distance as our storm chase vehicle speeds northward toward it along County Highway M31 in southeastern Ida County in the state of Iowa. The time and date was 8:25 PM, Saturday, April 9, 2011. We were located just north of 310th Street (County Road D56) and about five miles south of the town of Arthur. The dark post-like silhouette right of the tornado and just left of the yellow blur of a No Passing Zone sign is the support of a water tower. The tornado would morph into a stovepipe shape minutes later while northwest of Arthur. Driving our chase vehicle at left is son Ryan Alliss. The bluish smudges at top are windshield reflections from dashboard lights. This image is a video frame capture.

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Heavy Flakes A-Fallin'

Heavy and wet snowflakes fall near this footbridge just south of Boyson Road at the Cedar Rapids-Marion, Iowa border around 1:10 PM, Sunday, December 11, 2010. Snow was just beginning to collect on the warm ground and foliage. The weather really got going in this area about eight hours later as blizzard conditions intruded. This view along Dry Run Creek looks west.

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Color My World

The entire western horizon was ablaze with color at sunset around 8:50 PM, Saturday, July 23, 2011 in this view overlooking Bowman Woods Elementary School along Boyson Road NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. All was not the same throughout the state however, as severe weather was taking place southwest of this location.

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Incoming Outflow

Outflow turbulence with mammatus approaches from the west in this view from Brentwood Drive NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around 6:25 AM, Thursday, June 2, 2011. The short-lived turbulent looking sky was followed by some lightning and light rain, part of a weak thundershower. This fast moving outflow forced the cloud features shown above ahead of it.

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Snowflake Orbs

By using the flash on my camera, snowflakes falling in the foreground during this intense winter blizzard were captured as illuminated orbs. These inclement conditions were taking place around 9:45 PM, Tuesday, February 1, 2011. This image looks northeast from the parking lot at Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The blizzard stretched across much of the Midwest and delivered to Chicago one of the worst weather events in its history.

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Cumulus Mix

This high-angle view of the north sky shows a mix of color created from cumulus clouds. The location was at Brentwood Drive NE in Cedar Rapids and the time and date was 7:05 AM, Friday, September 2, 2011.

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Electric Avenue

Lightning strikes less than a mile from this position looking north along Keystone Avenue at 330th Street, about 8 miles south of Ida Grove, Iowa around 8:10 PM, Saturday, April 9, 2011. The lightning was frequent and energy-filled in this powerful tornadic storm system. Accompanying the brilliant lightning display was sustained RFD winds of around 50 mph. Storm chase driver Ryan Alliss is shown at lower left. On the move again to the northeast, we trailed a wedge tornado that eventually morphed into a stovepipe shape about 10-15 minutes after this video frame capture was made.

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