Big Storms, Big View

This was an unexpected event. Forecasts had earlier predicted severe weather for NE Iowa and into Wisconsin on the afternoon of Sunday, August 2, 2015. Instead, storms began to fire up in SW Iowa
after 4:00 pm. I had actually driven from Cedar Rapids to near Dubuque in anticipation of predicted severe weather there. As the afternoon progressed, it was obvious this was not going to happen, so I returned home. As it turned out, spectacular photo ops were waiting for me only blocks away from home! The image above is a four-photo stitch, creating a panorama of a storm system visual that was actually a conglomerate of several cells. Taken from Archer Drive and Bowhunter Drive in Marion at 8:29 pm CDT, the distance from the left edge (SE sky) to the right edge (SW sky) was about 200 miles. Closer in, occupying the left part of the cloud system was a cell about 50 miles distant in Muscatine County. The middle (south) was another cell about equal distance in Louisa County and to the right was a third cell about 45 miles away in Keokuk County. The more distant line stretched some 125 miles from SW Iowa into northern Missouri. The severe cell in southwest Iowa spawned an EF1 tornado in Adams County around 6:25 pm.

Above is an enlarged area of the panorama image, showing the left (SE) flank of the storm line, also at 8:29 pm. Although the sun had set six minutes earlier, the cloud tops--some 45,000 feet high--still reflected its light. A decided shadow line, cast from terrain, can easily be seen in the images. Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

This radar screen capture of the moment from the National Weather Service in Des Moines, shows all the cells and their positions from my spotting location.

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Western Northern Lights?

Closely resembling the streamers of a fiery aurora, the sunset in the western sky which followed severe storms and rain on the evening of Tuesday, July 28, 2015 produced images like those shown above. I was was returning home to Cedar Rapids, Iowa from a storm spotting excursion in Washington County to the south when the sky presented itself in this fashion. Only about a 10-15 minute window of opportunity was available for this beautiful sight. The top two images were captured at 8:24 pm CDT from my driver's side window while northbound on Interstate 380 just north of the I-80 interchange. The bottom image was shot at 8:28 pm from the intersection of West Lake Road and North Kansas Avenue in the town of North Liberty. The background brilliance began to die moments after the bottom photo was captured. Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

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Soaring Mother Ship

I had been chasing from Cedar Rapids to catch up with a severe-warned storm cell that was located just SW of the Interstate 380/Interstate 80 interchange around 5:00 pm CDT, Tuesday, July 28, 2015. As I reached it, it suddenly dropped below severe levels. But all was not lost as another, even larger cell was eastbound southeast of Des Moines. I set up spotting shop in one of my favorite locations on Yucca Avenue, which is .1-mile south of Highway 92 and about 1.8-mile east of the town of Ainsworth in Washington County. Exiting my car there at about 6:00 pm, my eyes were met with a near-classic "mother ship" storm structure to the west. The top image shows that hurried shot, which was aggravated by the fact that my camera's viewfinder and lens immediately fogged up. Going from an air-conditioned car to an outdoor 82 degree-temperature, 77 degree dew point and 84% humidity will do that! Furious wiping of the lens produced the second and third images a minute later. The third image is actually four stitched photos creating a panorama effect. All three images look northwest at the structure, whose most intense area was located about 86 miles away, just a few miles southwest of Knoxville in Marion County. Echo tops in that area soared to around 65,000 feet! Nikon D5000 DSLR camera.

Above is a radar image of the moment. The most intense part of the storm cell and my position in Washington County are illustrated.

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Photographing Daytime Lightning--The Ben Franklin Way

Capturing lightning with a camera during daytime can best be achieved by using an expensive lightning sensor trigger. I did not have this available on the evening of Tuesday, July 28, 2015 as a severe thunderstorm approached my position near Ainsworth, Iowa, so I had to resort to more basic means. Unlike night lightning, where one can keep the shutter open for several seconds, day lightning captures require high shutter speeds. The only method I could think of with the resources at my disposal was to use a feature of my Nikon D5000 DSLR camera to my advantage. That was the fact that when the shutter button is held down, a rapid succession of three shots occur. Also, lightning often flickers on, then off, then on again due to return strokes along its path. The focus was in manual mode, camera hand held, with my finger on the shutter waiting for the moment of the first flash. In some instances, with patience and luck, one of the three quick-fire shots captured a bolt.

The first lightning image, shown above, emanated from a rain shaft north of my position on Yucca Avenue, about .1-mile south of Highway 92 and about 1.8 miles east of Ainsworth. Time was 6:49 pm.

This lightning bolt was part of a severe-warned line of storms approaching from the west. Time was 7:40 pm.

Probably the most striking (pardon the pun) of the three images, this bolt emanates from a obvious point in a high-based cloud ten minutes later. Although it appears to strike a barn, the bolt was in fact much more distant. The lights of Ainsworth can be seen at right center.

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Hot July Day Storm Cell

On a day in which the NWS in the Quad Cities issued a heat index advisory, the sandpit volleyball tournament at the Oakland Church of the Nazarene in Cedar Rapids went on as scheduled Saturday afternoon, July 25, 2015. With temperatures at 87 degrees, dew point at 74 degrees and 65% humidity, isolated storm cells began popping up in Eastern Iowa. The storm cell seen above in the southeast sky during a timeout in volleyball play was located some 47 miles distant in Muscatine County, about ten miles west of Muscatine, Iowa.

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(Fair)ly Gorgeous Sky

The setting sun behind light rain clouds produced this brilliant pinkish-orange sky as seen from an outdoor Matt Maher concert on Wednesday, July 15, 2015. The concert was one of several performing at the Delaware County Fair near Manchester, Iowa. Photo was captured at 8:41 pm using my iPhone 6-plus camera.

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Out Of The Blue

Virtually the only activity in the state of Iowa at the time, this storm cell was definitely an isolated one. Though not severe-warned, echo tops were reaching around 40,000 feet and catching the rising sun. Both images above look north at 6:15 am CDT on Friday, July 17, 2015 from N. 15th Avenue in Hiawatha, Iowa. The storm was located about 45 miles away, in southeast Fayette County, just east of Oelwein, and moving in an easterly direction. iPhone 6-plus camera.

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