Morning Snow Squall

With the energetic snow squall to drop through early this morning, we picked up around a 10th of an inch or so in a very short amount of time. Due to the compact nature of the cluster I decided to head about 12 miles S of Decatur to see if there may have been some leading edge structure on the southern end possibly catching the low morning sun angle.



Facing N


Facing NE


Facing NW


Facing SE

Squall Line With Rotation

When the current storm system recognized for producing record high temperature and dew point measurements came to pass through Central Illinois on Tuesday, it also generated several severe thunderstorm as well as tornado warnings. Cells that were initially semi-discreet lined out over in West Central Illinois resulting in a lackluster shelf cloud at dusk. The panorama shot from just north and west of Springfield at twilight was unwarned but would elevate to severe criteria a short while later. Underneath the leading edge were numerous small circulations including one to wrap up a persistent cigar shaped funnel as I was driving and can be seen pulling away via the frame with inset. Sticking with this area of interest it wasn't too surprising when my iMap Weather Radio app sounded with an alert that the complex had been warned. Staying ahead of the precipitation, I only experienced marginally severe wind gusts upon being briefly overtaken early in its labeling history.

c/o RadarScope














The following morning, another round of precipitation lifted from the southwest. Ahead of the main line were showers that caught the morning light resulting in an unexpected rainbow. I happened to be out with a little extra time waiting for places to open so I was able to capture it. Upon exiting my vehicle I heard a loud hissing noise and discovered that I ran over a piece of metal and was losing pressure fast. Quickly moving to a nearby gravel road, I had no choice but to change it which was fine except that by then, the heaviest of the mini squall line arrived leaving me soaked. Winds gusting to around 29 MPH (airport obs.) were markedly colder as well but you do what you have to do when you have to do it.



Before tire change.


After.

Snowflakes vs. DVD

With a blank DVD and a small flashlight, I stepped out into the arctic air mass currently settling in over the Midwest to experiment with flurries. Hardest part is waiting in the cold for the right dendrites to land and then get in position before they blow away. Total darkness proved ideal so to have control in moving the flashlight around to achieve different color effects.





This one was ridiculously small, the crop is 100%.

2009 Revisited

I've been working on a big task over the past few months when I have time which is to re-edit all my stuff from 2009. Currently I don't have much of it online even though it was an excellent year for Illinois weather and nature photography. Some would argue the weather aspect since the Central Plains baked under a persistent ridge of high pressure for much of the typical storm season. Over here on the lee side however, we had numerous systems drop in along the periphery of this ridge which was pretty much draped across the Midwest. Anyways, starting with January, here are a few samples even though for the period through March I am already up to over 50 keepers. Maybe I'll get the project done this year and maybe not but among the tasks is to also redo video clips to be of better quality and with audio from the moment. The existing ones on YouTube were silent as I did not begin applying this technique till much later. Much of it is just wind buffeting but it's better than nothing.

January 9


February 11 and a picture that gave me fits for being jacked.




March 3 and my first success with macro photography.


March 8 and a front lit shelf lifting with a morning outflow boundary. It was this event that made me want to capture another front lit shelf which finally happened in 2012.


Severe thunderstorm later that day with the same complex to produce a damaging tornado in Sangamon county a short while earlier. It was here I got nailed by a powerful wind gust that sent both of my cameras tumbling into the mud which can be seen in the re-edited video around 1:43.




March 24 and ragged mammatus at twilight behind a departing system. You can hear Ava yelling at me in the distance.




March 31 and a highly sheared moisture starved frontal boundary passage that wrapped up a small wall cloud in front of Ava and I. This day was special to me and in the re-edited time lapse video with audio, you can hear dialogue from Ava as she asks about the whistling wind in nearby power lines. In terms of severity this was a non-event for which the best ones usually are.

Light Icing

Saturday into Sunday we had an overrunning event resulting in a minor glaze of ice.





During the Sunday midday we had another round of frozen precipitation as fine sleet and graupel. The shell is a mere 3/16th's of an inch in length.

New Year

Thanks to the irresponsible parent who allowed her sick kid to attend school so she wouldn't miss the Christmas party and was hacking all over the other children, Ava brought home the flu for holiday break. Poor kid was miserable the whole time and eventually it transferred to me wherefore I've been down since the 29th. This bug has been the worst yet and all I have been doing is coping. The initial flu phase is relatively short lived but it hangs on as a persistent annoying cold. Fortunately my work was cool and allowed ample time to be away so unlike many selfish people who choose to take their germs around the general populace, I haven't made anyone sick. Anyways, I had some ideas for an end of year "best of" post but decided it wasn't worth it. Being ill gave me pause to think about many things. So here we are, 2013 and I am very grateful for the good people of common interest who remain a part of my life. Have a nice year, good luck, be well and treat people even better.







and sunrise today.