Funnels, Tornadoes and Rotations

Pulled off the side of US Highway 34 about 3 1/4-miles southeast of Mount Pleasant in Henry
County, Iowa, my daughter and I witnessed the approach of a shelf cloud at 7:18 pm, Saturday,
June 20, 2015. This shelf cloud was not the same as the classic midwest mid-summer outflow
dominated storm. Several small rotating areas occurred on the leading edge of the shelf cloud, producing small and brief funnels (see circled area above). The image looks northwest.

The above image was captured along the highway about .8-mile closer to Mount Pleasant at 7:21 pm.
Direction is southwest. The right circled area is another brief scud-like funnel. Circled area at center was a big surprise. It shows a ghostly pencil shaped tornado, clearly on the ground. This was not visible to our naked eye and was not discovered until photo processing the next day.

This image is a vide frame capture a minute later. The pencil tornado would be located in the rain wrapped area at far left. The circled area above is a funnel hanging below a rotating wall cloud. Movement was right-to-left. At this point very strong inflow winds kicked up a flat piece of metal which caromed off our vehicle and was carried on into the wind toward the left of the picture. Top three images Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

My windshield-mounted Go Pro Hero camera caught this funnel at 7:28 pm looking northwest, as the storm system continued to pass through.

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Ma-Ma-Mammatus!

I have seen larger and more pronounced "globules" and sunlit displays before, but never have I seen the entire sky filled with spectacularly brilliant mammatus formations. In fact, I would consider this spectacle nearly a once-in-a-lifetime event! The mammatus display was the culmination of an afternoon and evening that produced severe weather, including tornadoes, in southern and eastern Iowa. This was also the culmination of a storm chase my daughter and I took part in the aforementioned SE Iowa area earlier. The images were captured at the Culver's restaurant in Hiawatha, Iowa--our post chase meal location--on Saturday, June 20, 2015.  The top image is a three image stitch panorama looking north. The middle image is the same image save one stitch. The bottom image looks west toward North Center Point Road. All images were shot at 8:47 pm CDT. Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

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Triple Teamed

Jupiter (upper left), Venus (upper right) and the moon created a triangular formation in the west sky on Friday evening, June 19, 2015. These two images look west from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at 9:36 pm CDT. Jupiter shown at magnitude -1.83 and Venus at a brilliant -4.38. It is easy to see how some aircraft pilots sometimes mistake the reflected light from Venus as incoming aircraft or even UFOs. Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

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Eerie Environs

The severe portion of a storm cell that contained a slowly-rotating wall cloud had passed north and east of the town of New London in Henry County Iowa on the evening of Sunday, June 7, 2015. I had ended my pursuit of the storm and found a north option (County Highway X23) to eventually return home on US Highway 218. About 6.2 miles north of New London I came upon this scene at Trinity Cemetery along the roadside: a thin strip of daylight showing along the horizon in an otherwise eerie sky setting. A steady rain was falling with intermittent CG lightning, so I didn't tarry too long here. The image above, captured at 6:05 pm CDT, is a two-photo stitch which created a panorama effect and looks north. Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

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A Little Mammatus

While other parts of the sky were clear blue, a northerly glance provided the above image. This two-photo stitch image was captured from Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa just after 7:30 pm CDT, Wednesday, June 17, 2015. Moisture amounts aloft were enough to create some moderate amounts of mammatus in the cloud field. Below, the circled area above the white dot (my location) shows the cloud formation signature on radar at this particular moment. Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

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Up Against The Wall (Cloud)

After repositioning from nearby Mount Pleasant, Iowa a short time earlier, a wall cloud formed to my north as I quickly pulled off US Highway 34 about 1.3 miles west of New London, Iowa on Sunday evening, June 7, 2015. These three images captured at a farm located near the curve of 260th Street, about one-tenth mile north of Highway 34, show the changing form of the wall cloud as it moved in an ENE direction (left-to-right in images). The top image, captured at 5:41pm CDT, is a two-stitch image. The middle image was shot at 5:43 pm and the bottom image a minute later. I followed the storm until it passed northeast of New London. The wall cloud did not produce a tornado. Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

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Under The Anvil

This image looks south along US Highway 218 at 160th Street, about 4.3 miles south of the Riverside, Iowa exit on the evening of June 7, 2015. Even though the anvil appears to be overhead, the leading edge is actually about 7 miles distant. I was headed for Henry County, where severe weather was approaching.

The middle image shows a radar capture at the time of the top photo (4:52 pm CDT), with the white dot showing my southbound position in relation to the storm. The green color at upper right is the anvil. Storm movement was to the ENE.

Bottom image, captured about three minutes later, looks generally east while southbound on US Highway 218. Mammatus formations can be seen under the local storm cell anvil. Along the horizon at center, the updraft of another storm cell can be seen. This storm was located some 90 miles to the northeast, in southern Whiteside County, Illinois. Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

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