Wearin' O' The White

An unexpected, and to many, un-welcomed St. Patrick's Day early morning snowfall dumped three inches of the white stuff in the Cedar Rapids, Iowa area on Sunday, March 17, 2019. Despite this continuation of the cold and weary winter, mother nature did leave her beauty mark in the process. The above and below images, which look west from the parking lot at Noelridge Christian Church at 7:55 am CDT, show a sun-illuminated ground fog and flocked trees.

The image below looks east toward the rising sun from the same position at 7:57 am. Air temperature was 19 degrees F and the humidity was 93%. Most of the new snow was gone by late afternoon. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.

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Snowmelt Had To Go Somewhere

A very harsh winter in 2019 with tremendous amounts of snow cover had potential consequences for significant flooding when temperatures began to rise toward spring.  These five images from Dry Run Creek at the border of Marion and Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Wednesday, March 13, 2019 show flooding one day before the local rivers would crest. Image capture times here range from 3:28-3:34 pm CDT. Air temperature was 50 degrees F, the highest since December. Dry Run Creek is a tributary of Indian Creek which in turn is a tributary of the Cedar River. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.

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Beach Sun In Waiting

Fog and overcast had not yet broken as the sun shone weakly through it as seen from the Jacksonville, Florida beach at 11:34 am EST, Monday, February 11, 2019. iPhone 6 Plus camera.

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Back To Reality

Air temperature at Orlando Airport in Florida on the morning of Tuesday, February 12, 2019 was in the upper 70s. Not so on the last leg to the Eastern Iowa Airport south of Cedar Rapids later in the day. Temperature was around 20 degrees with 30-40 mph wind gusts. Above, our aircraft descends to the Eastern Iowa Airport over snow-laden fields at 12:45 pm CST. Below, seconds later and directly over Interstate 380. Landing was a good one. Walking outdoors later to our car was not. A definite reality check at the end of our vacation! Driving on the roads at this time was actually not recommended. iPhone 6 plus camera.

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Sunrises In Paradise

More Florida vacation pics. Above, the predawn sky was warming up as we entered the beach area of Amelia Island from a public access boardwalk. Time was 6:49 am EST, Thursday, February 7, 2019. Official sunrise was at 7:12 am.

6:51 am. Further approaching the beach. Looking at the shoreline through tall dune grasses.

7:07 am. On the beach. The Amelia Island pier is at right. Camera mounted on a Joby Gorilla Pod tripod in the shallow surf.

7:08 am. With surf rolling in.

7:14 am. Rising sun peaking over the Atlantic's horizon.

Similar shot one minute later.

Same location, one day later. A beach walker looks southeast at the predawn glow from near the Amelia Island pier at 6:56 am EST, Friday, February 8, 2019.

6:59 am. Wave action near the pier, with a brightening southeast sky in the background.

7:15 am. Vertical orientated capture of sunrise right of the pier. Official sunrise on this day was 7:11 am.

7:16 am. Similar landscape version of image above it. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.

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Atlantic Dark Skies

Taking a vacation to the state of Florida in early February provided some beautiful night skies. The above image looks east out over the Atlantic Ocean from the third floor of the Holiday Inn Express in Daytona Beach Florida at 10:17 pm EST on Tuesday, February 5, 2019. The photograph was set up by attaching the camera's flexible Joby Gorilla Pod tripod to our balcony's railing. It is a 15 second exposure at f/2.8, 640 ISO and 11mm focal length.

Early the next morning from the same location. Image looks southeast at 6:24 am EST. At left center background is the 0.75 magnitude star Altair in the constellation Aquila. At right from lower left-to-upper right: 0.57 magnitude planet Saturn, -4.22 magnitude planet Venus, -1.90 magnitude planet Jupiter. Image is a 1.3-second exposure at f/3.2, 320 ISO and 13mm focal length. Sunrise was at 7:14 am this morning.

6:26 am EST, Friday, February 8, 2019. Looking southeast from the beach near the Amelia Island pier. Camera mounted Joby Gorilla Pod tripod placed in the sand. Image is a 2.5-second exposure at
f/3.5, ISO 640 and 18mm focal length. From lower left-to-upper right: 0.58 magnitude planet Saturn, -4.20 magnitude planet Venus, -1.91 magnitude planet Jupiter, 1.03 magnitude star Antares in the constellation Scorpius.

6:32 am. Image is a 2.5 second exposure at f/4, ISO 200 and 18mm focal length.

6:35 am. 2.5 second exposure, f/6.3, ISO 160, 18mm focal length. Nikon D7200 DSLR camera.

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Light Pillars, Not To Be Confused With Aurora

Getting out of my car for work early this morning I looked up into the dark sky and witnessed faint illuminated streaks. Were these funky lined-up contrails? Or cirrus clouds? Or aurora? As they persisted, I got out my Aurora Alert app. It showed activity, but far to the north--way above Iowa, and these were south and east. That couldn't be it. So what was it?

I would correctly surmise that ice crystals had something to do with it as the temperature was zero degrees F with 92% humidity.

As it turned out, many others had also seen the event and it was already posted on the news. These were rare light pillars. Caused by suspended or lightly sinking ice crystals being reflected by city lights. The pillars appear nearly 100% vertical, though this is an optical illusion. This image looks east toward Cedar Rapids from Progress Drive in Hiawatha, Iowa at 6:16 am CST, Wednesday, February 13, 2019. iPhone 6-Plus camera.

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