Cold Air Aloft Over Vermont Makes Clouds Blossom Super Fast and Beautifully

Cloud at 1:08 p.m.  

Northern New York and much of New England had lots of scattered showers and thunderstorms today as cold air aloft, combined with warm summer sunshine heating the ground, caused an atmospheric temperature contrast.

That contrast helped the storms blossom.

A few were severe, with fairly large hail, but the overwhelming majority of the thunderstorms were the garden variety type.

But many of them developed fast. Super fast

Same cloud, much bigger at 1:18 p.m. 

The three photos in this post are of the same cloud, taken at 1:08 p.m., 1:18 p.m., and 1:29 p.m. this afternoon, looking toward the northwest from South Burlington, Vermont.  

As you can see the cloud grew fast. (By the way, I don't think the cloud even existed before about 1 p.m.)

By the time the second photo was taken, the cloud was beginning to produce lightning.

By the time the last photo was taken, it was a full fledged thunderstorm.

Same cloud, bigger still, and a now a thunderstorm
at 1:29 p.m.   

But within a half hour after the last photo was taken, the thunderstorm had rained itself out.

The cycle repeated itself all afternoon. Storms blossomed, got briefly intense, then disappeared only to be replaced by new storms.

At least it made the sky pretty.