Heading For Trouble

An isolated severe storm cell looms in the distance as I headed north along Highway 13 just north of Marion, Iowa and approaching the intersection of County Home Road around 7:04 PM, Wednesday, June 26, 2013. I wasn't trying to intercept the storm (it was 85 miles away I later discovered) but to get closer to more effectively photograph it. I would eventually stop at the town of Coggon, about 13.5 miles from this position. The cumulonimbus sported an overshooting top, attesting to its strong updraft condition. The isolated storm was the only one for hundreds of miles and was located in Allamakee County, Iowa, along the Minnesota border.

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Lone Cumulonimbus From Coggon

This was the scene looking northeast from the Go America Phillips 66 gas station at Coggon, Iowa in northern Linn County around 7:30 PM, Wednesday, June 26, 2013. The large cumulonimbus cloud, part of a very isolated storm cell, was located about 85 miles away in Allamakee County (bordering Minnesota). From the perspective of the photos, the storm was moving from upper left to lower right. In extreme foreground (left-to-right) is 6th Avenue, behind the speed limit sign is 8th Street and at far right is Highway 13. Below is a radar screen capture of this moment.

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Storm Cell With No Competition

In an otherwise benign sky on Wednesday evening, June 26, 2013 I was surprised to see a blossoming thunderhead far off into the distance and sporting a overshooting top. I was on the road with my camera by 6:45 PM and headed north on Highway 13 north and east of Marion, Iowa. Appearing local, I would later discover the storm cell was actually about 85 miles from my eventual spotting position near the northern Linn County town of Coggon. Both of the upper images were shot around 7:19 PM and look north from Heatons Valley Road, just east of Highway 13 and about 2.25 miles south of Coggon. The overshooting top, a strong updraft feature resembling a small dome, can be seen at upper left on the structure. At this moment it was rising at an altitude of 50-55,000 feet. The bottom image is a radar screen capture corresponding to the photos. It shows the storm's location in extreme northeast Iowa (Allamakee County), near the Minnesota border.

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Distant But Dangerous

Seemingly harmless hidden inside a small opening in more local cloud cover, a line of cumulus 65 miles to the west (top image) is seen from Progress Drive in Hiawatha, Iowa around 1:08 PM, Monday, June 24, 2013. Two hours later this location was under a tornado warning from the system, though the nearest confirmed sighting was about 25 miles to the southeast, near Solon. The storm also dropped tremendous amounts of rain. The bottom image is a comparable radar image capture of this moment. The arrow shows the track of the distant cumulus, at this time in Marshall County.

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Dark Curtain Coming Down

The leading edge of a strong gust front is shown arriving near the Progress Drive Transamerica building in Hiawatha, Iowa. These three images range from 9:20-9:22 AM, Friday, June 21, 2013.
The first and third images look NE, the second looks north. The gust front brought torrents of rain and turned the morning sky black as night.

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Early Rising Storms

I was vaulted out of bed early Saturday morning, June 22, 2013 by the alarm of my weather radio. As I took up a spotter position for the incoming severe weather at Noelridge Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, these were some of the images I captured. At top, low hanging clouds drift toward the right just before 7:00 AM. In the distance is Pin Tail Drive NE and in the foreground is 74th Street NE. In the second and third images, an intense area of the storm is shown moving away to the east around 7:15 AM with C Avenue NE in the background. The storm system, of which these images were part of, stretched from Iowa County in Iowa upward to southwest Wisconsin.

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Inky Black Gust Front

I found myself watching an incoming storm from work on Friday morning, June 21, 2013 without my regular camera on hand, being caught unaware of the weather potential approaching from the northwest. I therefore resorted to using my cell phone's panoramic camera feature to capture these images of a menacing looking shelf cloud on the leading edge of a gust front. The top image was captured at 9:04 AM, the bottom at 9:19 AM. The building at left in both images is the Sport Zone, located on North 18th Street in Hiawatha, Iowa. As the storm blew through, it turned the sky inky black and dropped copious amounts of rain.

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