Into The Frosty Air

Steam rising several hundred feet into the sky from the Duane Arnold Energy Center near Palo, Iowa
on Wednesday, January 7, 2015 is suddenly caught and directed horizontally from a strong northwest wind. With surface air temperatures at -3 degrees F, this created -23 F wind chills. This image, looking northwest, was captured at 3:55 PM CST from the grounds at Echo Hill Presbyterian Church north of Marion, Iowa. The DAEC is Iowa's only nuclear power plant. Distance to the plant from this location was 7.6 miles.

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Frigid Weather & Sundogs

With temperatures dipping to -3 to -4 degrees F with -23 degree wind chills, conditions were prime
for the formation of a sundog on the evening of Wednesday, January 7, 2015. The top image was taken from the front grounds at Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at 3:47 PM. The middle image looks southwest at 4:07 PM from C Avenue, just south of County Home Road north of Marion. Bottom image is a view of the sundog at 4:16 PM from the entrance of Echo Hill Presbyterian Church on C Avenue north of Marion. The dark streak through the sun on the second and third images is a windblown steam plume from the Duane Arnold Energy Center near Palo, Iowa.

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2014 Christmas Star

The 0.75 magnitude star Altair (center) in the constellation Aquila shines through an area of altocumulus clouds which appear to rotate around the roof star on our house in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Christmas evening, Thursday, December 25, 2014. The clouds were partially illuminated by a crescent moon which was hidden by the darker clouds at left. Air temperature was an unseasonably warm 43 degrees F. This image looks west.

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Drizzly Anticipation Of Christmas

A steady-to-heavy drizzle on Monday evening, December 22, 2014, created the misty appearances seen in the three images above. A warmer than usual December in Cedar Rapids, Iowa has kept the ground free of snow and indeed at the time of photo capture of these images, the temperature was around 37 degrees F. The top image looks NE toward Bowman Lane NE as seen from Bowman Woods Park just before 8:00 PM, and is a .6-second exposure at f/9, 1600 ISO and 55mm focal length. The middle image is of similar direction and exposure. The bottom image looks the other direction in Bowman Woods Park, showing the misty surface appearance among the trees. This image was captured just after 8:00 PM and is a 13-second exposure at f/9, 1600 ISO and 55mm focal length.

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Frosty Thanksgiving Field

Happy Thanksgiving! Although the sun shown prominently over this open field near the Boyson Trail in Marion, Iowa on Thanksgiving morning, it was far from warming the landscape. The temperature was a chilly 11 degrees F, well below the seasonal norm. This view looks east. Thursday, November 27, 2014.

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November Passover?

Blowing snow, 13 degree F temperatures accompanied by -7 wind chills on Monday, November 17, 2014. Did someone passover December and go straight to January? This polar vortex-induced bitter weather came on the heals of a three-inch snowfall that fell Saturday evening. The image above looks south from Progress Drive at Martha's Way in Hiawatha, Iowa. Temps were about 30 degrees below normal. The high for this day was 14 degrees F. The last time in this area that a high of 14 degrees occurred in November was 1977.

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Colorful Prelude To A November Sunrise

The southeast sky was splashed with color from the unseen sun at 6:20 AM CST as seen here from Progress Drive in Hiawatha, Iowa. Sunrise was still 25 minutes away. The temperature was a chilly 27 degrees F.

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