Sunset Shelf at Sherman

The leading edge of what is expected to be an unseasonably cool air mass.





Heading home...

Full Thunder Moon

Early on the 23rd we had another overnight frontal boundary passage. What made this otherwise ordinary event unique is that the activity was illuminated by the appropriately titled full thunder moon.

Sunday Night Storms

Another day, another wave of low pressure moves through the Central region. Upon maturation and subsequent collapse of the first cell for our county, the outflow spread to the north and west in such a way as to catch the available city light. Other development from over by Springfield would later approach in a traditional western fashion.

I was between Maroa and Forsyth with the energy moving as indicated by the marker. The cell behaved in more of a left split manner vs. north side outflow ejecting from the back.

c/o RadarScope

Facing S


Facing E




Later to the west and facing east, a large base could be seen looming over Decatur. Surface winds at this time were slightly backed out of the ENE. Note the filtered moon light.


Facing WNW




On passage through the overnight.

July Miscellaneous

It's hard to believe how quickly this month has been flying by. Despite the importance of effective time management, I've been struggling to stay motivated. Though I cannot travel far or do much compared to most normal people, I've sought to remain useful by simply being outside.



Can a full size dragonfly consume another full size dragonfly in its entirety?


The answer...








Tinkering with aquatic macro, a long way to go still.

Retrograding Low

A bizarre meteorological event took place over the weekend in that an area of low pressure to develop over the upper Ohio valley would make a unusual journey from east to west. Showers and storms forming on the western side of this system and propagating to the WNW as the parent circulation traveled across Southern Illinois was advertised on the 4KM WRF for Saturday. Though convection would end up not being as robust as the particular model suggested, I still headed down to the I-70 corridor. Anything to potentially fire would not only be moving opposite of the normal flow but also front lit from the waning daylight.

The low center showed up nicely on satellite.

c/o COD Meteorology

Convection was of the pulse variety in that cells would not sustain for long however, a distant one over Olney took off surprisingly well at peak heating. Using the 300mm so to not miss the wall cloud before it dissipated, a look at velocity confirmed that there was some rotation with this storm. Despite trying to get much closer, the complex would lose its vigor soon after.

c/o RadarScope





Separate cluster to the south.


Note the purplish front lit arcus cloud associated with outflow ejecting towards the west vs. east.


The now dissipating initial cell cluster with 'downstream' anvil.






Heading home, I stopped just north of Effingham along I-57 to try for lightning on a new cell to the NE near Casey. Despite seeing a few flashes while approaching, I would be too late and only observe the dissipating downstream remnant rain core. Melinda Swinford was shooting directly opposite and captured the best side of this storm at its peak. Her image SEEN HERE is nothing short of a career shot due to the rare movement interacting with available sun as well as moon light!

July 10 Gullywasher

Storms initiating in Illinois on Wednesday morning would go on to produce widespread WIND DAMAGE from here all the way through the Mid-Atlantic region. Awaking through the night and wondering when the cold front would finally begin to fire, once it did, I stepped out and up the road. Just prior to the onset of extremely HEAVY RAIN, the line offered up a few visuals in the lower angle available light of morning.


c/o RadarScope









Later, I captured some audio during the height of the event.

Sunspot AR 1785

Stepping out for a quiet Saturday evening sunset, I incidentally documented a giant sunspot that is currently moving across the face of the sun. Dubbed AR 1785, I was surprised to learn that although appearing as a speck, it is according to Spaceweather.com, 11 times the width of earth! We are so infinitesimally small.

Start of July

Showers wrapping around the back of the same pesky cut off low spinning over the Midwest on the 1st weren't much to speak of but a cell at Bethany did intensify on arrival and produce an interesting base. The fact that storms were traveling to the SSW is what made them unique. Much further to the east, Dan Robinson captured a few westward moving TORNADOES developing closer to a well positioned MCV during peak heating.


c/o RadarScope







On the 3rd I ended up down at the Lake Shelbyville spillway and was fortunate to encounter several Lancet Clubtail dragonflies. I had hoped for the opportunity to shoot these colorful odonates again since getting one last year but not of ideal quality. I also had access to a Canon T3 thus enabling me to get my sharpest images yet. Per the first image, they assume the hyper inverted stance you see just before taking flight which is a characteristic I have not noticed before in other species.




I was laying flat on the ground and wonder if perhaps it was mocking me?


Shelbyville Beach, flooded and closed.


Fooling around at a July 4th picnic, exploding bang snap.


Baby mantis on my fingertip is not the best quality but also not easy to remain steady.


Not feeling any particular single frame of my continuous Warrensburg IL fireworks captures, I went with composite stacks including 5 images for the first, 8 for the second and 104 for the last. No lightning like the past two years but at least there was a dying 'storm' over in WC IL per the first image. As for the single explosion shooting out of frame on the last, it was massively cool for I was also using the 10-24 wide angle. It would be the only one like it throughout the show. A nice alternative to Decatur which is a spectacular event but rife with safety concern.