Awesome Cold Wave Scenes From This Past Weekend

The big Valentines Day weekend cold wave is waning fast today, but we have some cool videos on what effects it all had on different parts of the country. Here's a few videos to demonstrate.


Benjamin Williamson shot this gorgeous video of Arctic sea smoke around the Whaleback Lighthouse near Kittery, Maine.




Here, a huge water main break in Scranton, Pennsylvania coated a neighborhood in ice, as you can see from this Associated Press video:





Andy McDougal filmed these "steam devils" and a skinny water spout on Vermont's Lake Champlain as the bitter Arctic air flowed across the still-unfrozen water Saturday. For the record, I saw another waterspout on the lake off Colchester, Vermont Saturday, but didn't have my camera with me to record it.

Here's McDougal's video:

Maybe The Coolest Tornado Photo Ever

I'm no expert, but I imagine it's next to impossible to photograph a tornado at night.

It can be dangerous to photograph tornadoes any time of day, what with their unpredictability, all that wind and annoying flying debris you get with these things if you're too close.

But at night it's even worse. You don't see them except during brief lightning flashes or electrical power flashes that happen when a tornado trashes its way through a utility line or transformers.

That's why I haven't seen too many good nighttime tornado photos and videos.

But mostly nocturnal tornado outbreak in Texas and Kansas Monday evening proved to be photogenic for some talented photographers.

This included one of the best photos I've ever seen of a tornado, at any time of day, the one in this post. It was taken by Jenny Brown of Texas Storm Chasers. 

Click on the image to make it bigger and easier to see.

The photo shows a Texas supercell near Pampa, lit up by a big lightning bolt. You can see at the base of the supercell, way off in the distance, a large tornado. Above the supercell, you can see stars serenely twinkling.

The image is somehow calming, even though you know there's a dangerous tornado in the photo. I love the bluish tint to the clear skies above contrasted with the redish llight at the bottom, presumably from car headlights.

The composition and light of this photo is so perfect. Congratulations to Jenny Brown for this awesome photo. Go to  her Facebook page and check out more. And maybe you could contact her to buy prints of this photo, or maybe some of her other awesome images.

I'm Not The Only One Seeing Cool Clouds: See Cape Town, South Africa

Lenticularis clouds over Cape Town, South Africa last
Sunday. Photo by Liza Vaun Bezuidenhout, via Twitter.  

In a post in this here blog thingy yesterday, I went off on some beautiful clouds I photographed in Alburgh, Vermont.

Of course, beautiful clouds can happen anywhere, so it's always good to look up occasionally to see what's going on overhead.

Case in point: Cape Town, South Africa last Sunday.

Lenticularis clouds formed over the South African city. These clouds are fairly common, and most often form when winds fairly high up in the atmosphere are quite strong.

Clouds often form when air rises over a mountain, and moisture in the rising air condenses into a cloud, the the air drops down over the mountain or other obstruction, limiting the size of the cloud.

Sometimes the air going up and over the mountain continues in waves downstream, much like the waves you see downstream from a submerged rock in a fast moving river.

Another view of the lenticularis clouds over
Cape Town, South Africa. Photo by Kyle Mihof.  

Then you get these smooth, shaped lenticularis clouds. They're relatively common, but sometimes they're quite spectacular, looking at like UFOs or something.

Because these clouds are a visible reflection of a wave in the wind over a mountain, they don't move much. And the wind screaming through this clouds often sculpts them into smooth, rounded, layered shapes.

Lenticularis clouds are not dangerous, and are not a sign that scary, stormy weather is approaching. However, they are a sign for airplane pilots that the air is very turbulent.

The Most Incredible Vermont November Sky Imaginable

Late afternoon on Lake Champlain in Alburgh, Vermont
November 11, 2015.  

One of my jobs is a gardener, and as late afternoon arrived yesterday, November 11, it was time to pack it in for the day where I was doing some fall cleanup.

The place where I was working was at a summer camp on a picturesque shoreline along Lake Champlain in Alburgh, in far northwestern Vermont.

The day was good, because much of the job involved raking leaves.

The shores of Lake Champlain are usually very gusty in November, making leaf cleanup not exactly a breeze (Ha!)

Same view, but a vertical shot this time. A

Yesterday was oddly calm, an oasis of windlessness as a strong storm kicked up tornadoes and widespread gusty winds across much of the nation. It was also very warm for November, so the job went well.

As I put my tools away, I noticed the sinking sun really starting to light up the broken deck of midlevel clouds overhead. The light was also reflecting on the rare situation of a calm November Lake Champlain.

I bring my camera pretty much everywhere I go, because you never know what you'll see.

Lugging the Canon from place to place paid off big time, as you can see the kinds of shots I captured on that Alburgh lakefront property.

Click on the photos to make the bigger and easier to see.

Today as I write this, it's more typical November in Vermont. It's windy, there's bursts of rain, the the sky is a featureless, uninteresting dark winter gray.

But I got my gift yesterday, so I can't complain!

A little while later, the sun set over Lake Champlain in Alburgh. 

Hutchinson, Kansas Tornado Was An Awesome Thing

The giant Hutchinson, Kansas tornado
roping out and stirring up a big
 cloud of dust on Monday.  

As part of a massive severe weather outbreak in the nation Monday (more on that later) a large tornado touched down right near Hutchinson, Kansas.  

Luckily, the enormous storm did not go right through Hutchinson, but mostly stayed in rural areas just outside town. So damage wasn't all that great.

What was great was how photogenic the Hutchinson tornado was. And how far and wide you could see it. One of the videos below is from a drone that captured the tornado.

From the photos (click on them to embiggen them) one person took a photo of the tornado from a jetliner flying sort of nearby. Another great photo is the one when the tornado is "roping out" but still flinging up tons of dust.

The tornado came out of a what is known as a low precipitation supercell, obviously meaning there wasn't much in the way of rain to spoil the tornado show.

Roping out is what a tornado very often does when it's falling apart and dissipating. It gets narrower and narrower until it finally looks like a rope dangling from the sky. Then it falls apart and becomes pretty much nothing.

The Hutchinson tornado as seen from a passing jetliner.  

The tornado near Hutchinson surely wasn't nothing, though.  

For videos, let's start with that drone view. I love how sunny and pleasant it seems where the drone is, in contrast to where the tornado is swirling:



Here's another view of it:

More Incredibly Photogenic Supercells In Plains Yesterday

I know I just did this yesterday, but I can't resist posting another time lapse of a supercell storm.

This one is near Jetmore, Kansas last evening is absolutely beautiful, so I have to post it. So here you go:

Stormscapes Video by Nicolaus Wegner Is Beyond Awesome

An ominous, beautiful wall cloud in a severe storm,
photographed by Nicolaus Wegner.  

Those of you who read this here blog thing know I like weather porn.

So do a lot of other weather geeks. Weather porn is totally safe for work.

It's images and videos of storms and other extreme weather that is thrilling to watch, dramatic to see. It's kind of a rush.

I'm always looking for "weather porn videos" like some sort of creep in a scary adult video parlor in a bad part of town.

Except, since it's innocent enough (No sex! No nudity! No weirdness!) I can be open about it, and can just enjoy this little foible I have. And share it.

I think I found what is maybe the best weather porn video I've ever come across.

It's time lapse videos of storms, tornadoes and other violent weather in Wyoming and surrounding states.

It was put together by Nicolaus Wegner, who, with his wife Daow, run LightAlive photography in Wyoming. 

Nicolaus Wegner captured his wife Daow, confronting
a beautiful, severe storm.  

The video, Stormscapes 2, is meticulously edited to music, and it's just an awesome concert of nature at its most violent and beautiful.

Wegner spent a lot of time driving around Wyoming, South Dakota and nearby other states to capture these big storms.

Just an amazing video to watch. And pop on over to the LightAlive photography web site, because he's got awesome still images of storms and other nature pics.

They do a lot of great portraiture and wedding photography, too, but their nature images are absolutely amazing.

Wegner's weather art are (hint, hint) the perfect Christmas gift for the storm, nature and art lover.

Here's his amazing Stormscapes 2 video. (It's best to watch it in full screen mode):





Stormscapes 2 from Nicolaus Wegner on Vimeo.

Magical Mount Washington Summit

What the view from atop Mount Washington was
on September 12, 2014.  

The summit of Mount Washington is usually a forbidding place: Hurricane force winds, ice, temperatures way below zero, insane wind chills, and summer snow sometimes.

On other occasions, Mount Washington is magical.

I missed it when this video came out, but back on the night of September 12, the aurora borealis were visible in much of the northern third of the United States, and other countries in the Great White North.

Atop Mount Washington, a low overcast shrouded northern New England during the early part of the evening, but the top of the mountain poked above those clouds.

So you had what is known as an "undercast" and a clear sky above the mountain.

So we get this wondrous time lapse video of the aurora, along with views of the undercast coursing over ridges, and past the top of Mt. Washington.

We also get images of sunrises and sunsets, the lights of little towns in the valleys, lights that get lost in pockets of fog that form near the rivers.

Like I said, it's magical.

Here's the video:

Great Weather Photos: Lightning, Waterspouts, Hurricanes And More

Florida waterspout. Photo by Frank Abbott.  

As I sometimes do, I scrolled around looking for great weather photos taken in recent days.

As always, I was not disappointed.

The first photo in this post is an incredibly beautiful, impeccably composed photo of a large waterspout off the coast off Pensacola, Florida on Monday.

It was taken by photographer Frank Abbott.

Stunning!

The second photo is of the same giant waterspout, taken from a closer vantage point. This photo was taken by Jon Worley.

Another view of the Florida waterspout. Photo by Jon Worley.  

Looks like the people in the foreground are pretty much in awe of it.

The third photo in this post is a close up satellite view of the eye of Hurricane Eduoard, which was spinning in the central Atlantic Ocean yesterday when the photo was taken.

It's no threat to land, which is a good thing, because it looks mighty powerful in this photo.

The last image in this post is a close lightning strike in the southeastern California desert, taken by Will Wilkens.  (You might have to scroll down a bit to see it.

The storm was part of the initial push of moisture from what was Hurricane Odile. The remnants of the hurricane are expected to cause severe flooding and torrential downpours in the Desert Southwest today and tomorrow.    

A close lightning strike in the California desert yesterday.  

Aurora Borealis (Mostly) Lived Up To Its Billing: Great Photos

From @DaveThroupEA on Twitter. A volcano and
Northern Lights in Iceland last night.  

The Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, put on an excellent show in much of the Great (Whitish) North of the world last night, pretty much as expected.

For a couple days before the event, scientists said a bigger than usual solar storm would help light up the skies, especially since the solar eruption was sort of, but not perfectly aimed toward Earth.

Twitter lit up with examples of some great views, and I've shared some in this post. The most shared has to be the first one in this post.

It was taken in Iceland, and you see the Bardarbunga volcano erupting with the Northern Lights overhead.

@hangingditch on Twitter provided this view
from Cumbria, UK.  

There might be more auroras tonight, but it probably won't be as widespread and spectacular as last night.    

The best comment about the Aurora last night came from @btvjim, otherwise known as That Guy, who Tweeted: "Isn't Aurora a dancer at Club Super Sex?"

Dan Russell, who is @DanRuss on Twitter, took
this shot over Lake Champlain near Burlington, Vermont
last night. 

Goran Strand caught this other worldly view in Sweden.  

The Mount Washington Observatory in New Hampshire got this
spectacular view. You can see an undercast of clouds
in the valleys beneath the mountain summit glowing
in the light from the Norther Lights.  

"Kelvin Wave" Video Is Coolest Cloud You'll See In A Long Time

I have to show you the coolest cloud formation with the most boring of names.

Another example of Kelvin-Helmholtz instability
clouds, different from the ones in the video.  n

It's called Kelvin-Helmholtz instability.  A yawner of a scientific name, but the clouds the instability causes can be totally amazing.

Writing in About.com's weather page, Rachalle Oblack explained them this way:

"When two different layers of air are moving at different speeds in the atmospher, a wave structure will often form. The upper layers of air are moving at higher speeds and will often scoop the top of the cloud layer into these wave-like rolling structures. The clouds often form on windy days where there is a difference in densities of the air, such as a temperature inversion."

The video first appeared on Facebook, posted by Darren Springer.

Here's the video:

Gorgeous Weather Ending, But Returning Soon To Vermont

We can probably nominate this past week as the most gorgeous, weatherwise, of the year in Vermont, but next week is an even stronger contender for that title.

Leaves were starting to turn under beautiful
blue skies over my St. Albans property Friday.
 

But we've got to endure a break in the gorgeousness this weekend.

That's not to say today and tomorrow will be awful. Just not wonderful.

Today, Saturday, we in Vermont face the dawn with more generally clear skies, but that won't last long. Clouds are coming in from the west, and so is rain.

I think in Vermont, most of the rain will hold off until late in the afternoon in the Champlain Valley and tonight more to the east. Winds will get gusty from the south today, reaching 40 mph in the Champlain Valley.

It's already breezy out there and leaves are flying off some of the early coloring trees. It's that time of year.

At least the timing of the cold front approaching us is good. Most of the rain will fall tonight, and it will be a fairly good soaking, at least a half inch, maybe more.

Sunday will dawn cloudy and damp and probably rainy, but things will gradually start to improve during the afternoon. We'll even start to see some sun, especially the more west you go.

And that sets us up for another stretch of wonderful September weather. With a few exceptions, this has really been a beautiful month, even if rainfall is above normal.

The first half of the upcoming week will be cool and crisp and sunny, perfect for apple picking and such. Watch out for some nighttime frosts, but you get that a lot this time of year.

The second half of next week will turn a bit warmer, but stay sunny. By then, I'd suggest heading to the hills and the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, because the fall colors will really be starting to hit nicely.

I've already noticed some color, and early signs point to a vibrant foliage season. I hope your cameras are ready for a heavy workout in the next couple of weeks.

Some of the Coolest Funnel Clouds Are Overseas

Two YouTube videos popped up this week that depict absolutely gorgeous funnel clouds.

One shows a waterspout over the Baltic Sea with a rainbow in the foreground. Love how the funnel and the rainbow sort of bend in the same sort of way, almost like dance partners:





The next video shows a tornado in Kazakhstan this week. I love how the dark funnel is set off against the brilliant blue sky in the background. Really nice use of color, Mother Nature!