Ground Smoke Effects

Canadian wildfires continue to influence sky brilliance and even air pollution in Iowa. The two images above show sunrise at 6:14 am on Tuesday, July 7, 2015, as seen from Boyson Road, just west of Interstate 380 in Hiawatha. Smoke from the wildfires was borne by a northern cold front and actually pushed it toward the ground, making its odor noticeable and resulting in low air quality advisories. iPhone 6-plus camera.

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Rockets Red Glare

These Independence Day fireworks images, looking north from First Street SW, between Second and Third avenues in downtown Cedar Rapids, Iowa, capture some of the scenes of the event held on Saturday, July 4, 2015. The top image is a three-image stack shot at 10:02 pm CDT. The middle image was shot at 10:06 pm and the bottom (a two-image stack) at 10:04 pm. This popular annual event began at 9:45 pm and lasted for about a half hour. Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

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More Augmented Sunsets

Canadian wildfires far to the north continued to enhance sunsets in Iowa on the evening of Friday,
July 3, 2015. The scene above looks northwest from Arabian Road, less than a mile southwest of the town of Alburnett at 8:19 pm CDT.

This view looks toward the same direction at 8:24 pm along Alburnett Road, about 2.13 miles north of County Home Road, north of Marion, Iowa. Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

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Brilliant Morning Light

A light rain and a thin veil of cloud cover was enough to let enough sunlight through to produce these brilliant sunrise images. Weather conditions also produced a brief and somewhat dull rainbow. All three images look east from Brentwood Drive NE in Cedar Rapids on Wednesday, June 24, 2015. The top two were captured at 5:32 am CDT, the bottom at 5:35 am. Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

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All Day Mammatus

Harbingers of severe weather, mammatus formations showed themselves through most of day in Eastern Iowa on Saturday, June 20, 2015, appearing as early as 8:30 am. The atmosphere was rife
with moisture all day and it showed. As a severe-warned storm cell approached the position seen in the three images above, myriad mammatus festooned the underside of its enormous anvil. Spotting position here was on 260th Street, .1-mile north of US Highway 34, about 1.3-mile west of the town of New London. The top image looks northwest at 6:19 pm. The middle image faces south at 6:41 pm and the bottom image at 6:43 pm. Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

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(Fiery) Sunrise, Sunset

Aided in brilliance by Canadian wildfires on Tuesday, June 30, 2015 were sunrises and sunsets in Iowa. The top image, captured with an iPhone 6 Plus camera at 6:16 am CDT, looks east at the rising sun from North 18th Avenue in Hiawatha, just southeast of Fay Clark Park. The bottom image looks northwest at the setting sun at 7:35 pm from Echo Hill Road, about .3-mile east of C Avenue, north of Marion. Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

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Breathtaking Storm Cell

This remarkable image is actually an Adobe Bridge photomerge of four separate vertically oriented images. The entire width of this structure could not be included in my camera's widest angle (18mm focal length) shooting landscape style, but it was also so immense it cut it off vertically! I was forced to shoot "portrait" style to include its depth. The most intense part of this storm cell was located about 70 miles to the west, at the Marion and Mahaska counties border in Iowa. The leading edge of the anvil was about half as far. Photo(s) shot from Yucca Avenue, a little over a mile east of Ainsworth, Iowa in Washington County at 5:28 pm CDT, Saturday, June 20, 2015. This storm would produce brief pinup tornadoes about two hours later in Henry County to the south. The bright area at upper left is the sun, obscured by the anvil.

Showing the sun a little more clearly in the anvil is the image above, captured at 5:27 pm. Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

My onboard RadarScope view of the storm.

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