Landscape Rock

Occupied the time while Ava played by looking for fossils and things at my feet.

Chasing Spaceships

Just before heading out yesterday evening with Ava for an errand, I noticed that skies were fair so I checked the Spaceweather Satellite Tracker to see that we were in line for a scheduled ISS (International Space Station) flyby. With just enough time to find a suitable location, Ava was excited to know that besides hitting the store, we were going to "watch the spaceship." Ava is at the age where she knows that the ISS gliding by is up in space but she thinks the Backyardigans are flying it like the episode where they go to Mars. Tonight as I was thinking about how peculiar it was to be sharing a parent/child moment watching an orbiting spacecraft and how nothing I did with my parents was remotely close, she made the comment "I wish I was up in the space station". I wish for her sake that someday she can be too...







Love that we caught the exit as it slipped behind earth's shadow.


Quick look SW at Orion

March 11 Storms

Thursday's weather potential did not play out as was expected so I didn't travel far. I did however take the opportunity to be outside as it was an incredibly beautiful day for early March. Ultimately, when things finally popped around 5PM, they did so further to the NE but at the same time, I found myself along the actual cold front which offered up it's own surprises. Without getting too far ahead, the afternoon began with just some cloud watching around Macon county.















Attempting to be creative, I ended up out at Rock Springs with the intent of pairing the wetlands against weak convection to the E.


First time I have seen a Bufflehead. Thanks to Bill Doms and Brian Emfinger for identifying this species.




Success!


The beginnings of the ever so slowly advancing cold front to the W.


While at the park, I noticed towers going up on the line so I headed down towards Elwin. This is looking NE early on at what would become a sizable cell near the Champaign area.


The cold front having moved across the state at a snails pace finally arrived albeit starved for lagging behind considerably. I immediately noticed several interesting features including lowerings with slight rotation so this became my focus.




The magic moment towards the NE, mature cell at distant left is over Champaign and I believe the same that Andrew Pritchard photographed.


Small rotating wall cloud to my SW complete with inflow band streaming in from left. Easy to discern on video which I have yet to work with.


Looking NW on a similar feature.






All in all, not a bad day considering how nice the temperatures were in spite of the Winter that up until now has been persistent in keeping us socked in with a chilly NW flow.

Sunday Driver...

Sunday morning it was showery so I headed up into Dewitt County. I then meandered over to Logan County and finally back down to Macon County.























Back at home around lunchtime, a small line of storms approached from the W. I decided to go out again but not far. Noted some lightning, thunder and small hail which is a nice change from the Winter that has not wanted to give up.







Black and white is not something I do much with but for this day it seems to work.