The Nice Thing About Summer Storms Is Cool Clouds

Massive storm moving into Washington DC, last week. 

One thing I like about late spring and summer, when we're more likely to get thunderstorms, are the gorgeous cloud formations these storms form.

An example came Thursday in northern Virginia and the Washington DC area, when an immense, severe supercell thunderstorm moved over the region, as Capital Weather Gang noted. 

Like some of these supercells in the Midwest, this one looked like an alien mothership as it moved over DC.

When the storm moved on, people got a great sunset look at mammatus clouds on the real flank of the anvil at the top of the storm, too.

Wild mammatus clouds over Landsdowne, Virginia last week.

These clouds can be pretty creepy, but they're probably the least dangerous part of a supercell thunderstorm.

Usually, when you see them, the storm has already passed you by, so you're probably safe.

So go out and take a photo of those.  

Late last week, I flew from Vermont to Omaha, Nebraska via Atlanta. (Don't ask).

Our plane bound for Omaha zigagged around some strong thunderstorms that were producing flash flooding in parts of the Midwest.

It was probahly pretty nasty under those storms, but from the air they looked majestic, as you can see in this next photo I took from the plane.

Ah, summer. Some like the sunshine. Others, like me, like clouds.

Thunderstorms over the Midwest as seen from air somewhere
over the Midwest last Friday.