Mars And Spica

Mars was in the constellation Virgo on Saturday night, April 5, 2014, and was close to the constellation's principal star Spica. These three images show the two celestial bodies--with Mars above and slightly left of Spica--as they rose in the east sky. The top two images view the duo from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with Brentwood Drive NE in the background from 9:23-9:28 PM. The bottom image looks over the back of our house at 10:40 PM. Mars shone at -1.44 magnitude, Spica at 0.96. The red planet will achieve its brightest magnitude since December, 2007 on April 8, at -1.5. Mars at this time is marginally more brilliant that the sky's brightest star, Sirius.

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Warm Wind A-Blowin'

Conditions sort of felt like that ripe for severe weather--strong, warm wind blowing from the south. And indeed the temperature at this moment was around 68 degrees F. But instability was low as dew points were in the mid-40s. The skies as seen from Brentwood Drive NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa just before 6:00 PM on Monday, March 31, 2014 were streaked with parallel rows of cirrus fibratus clouds. The clouds quickly dissipated in the high winds and soon the skies were clear. Around 7:30 PM, a thin line of thundershowers moved through the area, dropping about 0.04-inches of rain. The top and middle images look northeast, the bottom image looks southwest. Wind speeds reached 30 mph this evening.

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Slow Meltdown

The ultra-inclement winter of 2013-2014 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa produced the deep mounds of snow seen in the top image, shot from our backyard. The location of the last lingering spot of snow and ice is marked in the top image (February 18) by a red X, and in the bottom image (March 21) by a white X. Also included in the bottom image is an inset closeup of the last snow. Despite lamenting that this snow field would not fully melt until May, it took just 32 days to go from Image 1 to Image 2.

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Unexpected Mammatus

I stopped off at a store on my way home from work on Tuesday, March 18, 2014, and as I prepared to get in my car to go home, I noticed mild but very distinguishable mammatus formations in the west sky. Considering the fact that most mammatus form under the anvil of a cumulonimbus cloud, this was a little unusual. Weather conditions at this time more winter like: 48 degrees F temperatures, 64% humidity, 35 degree dew points and winds out of the southeast at 15 mph. The top image was captured at 3:14 PM from Hy-Vee Drugstore at Boyson Road and C Avenue NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The middle image was shot about five minutes later from Bowman Woods Park. The bottom image is a radar capture of the moment.

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Frigid Conjunction Show

The conjunction of a waning crescent moon and the -4.58 magnitude planet Venus on Wednesday, February 26, 2014 was a beautiful sight, but one could not enjoy it for long. Air temperature was -8 degrees F with -23 wind chill. Taking the above photos was particularly unpleasant as my bare fingers were rendered painfully numb within seconds of their exposure to the air. The top image was captured around 6:20 AM from Miller Road just north of Boyson Road in Hiawatha, Iowa. The middle and bottom images were photographed from Boyson Road, just west of Interstate 380 around 6:10 AM. The moon and Venus were situated around three degrees from one another in the SE predawn sky.

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Snow Holiday

President's Day was a snowy one in the Cedar Rapids/Marion Iowa area on Monday morning, February 17, 2014. Shown above are some winter scenes as the snow continued to fall. The top image was captured around 11:06 AM and shows the trunk of a large fallen oak tree forming an arch shape. Only a sliver of Dry Run Creek was visible in the bottom image as I gingerly negotiated my footsteps over the snow covered ice in the creek bed around 11:16 AM. About five inches of snow fell on this location.

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The Neverending Story

This has been the story for the winter of 2013-2014. One snowstorm with trailing cold after another. The latest edition was this winter system that dropped about 5 inches of snow in the Cedar Rapids/Marion area from Sunday night (February 16, 2014) to Monday morning (February 17). I had Monday off for President's Day so I was able to photograph the event at Boyson Park in Marion, Iowa, near the border of Cedar Rapids. At times, in order to obtain desired perspectives, I needed to wade through knee-deep snow. The top image looks south and was shot around 11:00 AM. The middle image looks west and was shot around 11:18 AM. Temperatures were around 26 degrees F. The bottom image is a radar capture of the storm system, shortly after the middle photo was taken and shows the snow beginning to taper off as it continues east.

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