Atomic Test?

No not nuclear - just a normal everyday severe thunderstorm tower off to the East of Amarillo last night. I love photographing these giants, especially at sunset when the light up like jack-o-lanterns. This one dropped a few tornados and some baseball sized hail in the town of Wellington.

-Steve Douglass

Midwest Tornado Video Compilation:

Courtesy The Weather Channel

Downburst

Thunderstorm downburst that hit Amarillo with 75 MPH+ winds.

-Steve Douglass

The Big Swirl

I shot this looking due south of Bushland, Texas tonight as severe storms moved through the city dropping golf-ball sized hail, and packing hurricane strength winds.

Tornados were reported north of the city and I thought the way this one was swirling it would drop one too, but it turned into a very powerful straight-line wind events that caused trees to be uprooted, signs knocked down and bus benches tipped over.
I'll post more photos soon.

-Steve Douglass

Video: When Pigs Fly.

Better video of a tornado hitting a hog farm near Hennessey, Oklahoma.

Oklahoma Tornado Video Fox News Coverage

Video report on today's tornados in North-Central Oklahoma.

Amazing Oklahoma Tornado Caught on Live TV

Recorded from Fox News feed of a strong storm in Oklahoma that had already dropped 8 tornados.
Man I wish I was there!

Update: The video you see here was shot near Hennessey, Oklahoma, northwest of Oklahoma City.

-Steve

Conspiracy Of Nature

We had a few thunderstorms pop up late this afternoon which helped set the stage for a glorious sunset.
The two horses ran when the thunder began and separated but rejoined just at the right time. I call these "conspiracies of nature" and amazingly seem to happen when a photographer is around to capture it.

A little tweaking in Aperture helped as well.

Enjoy!

-Steve

Still waiting ...

Looks like this weekend (most likely Saturday) will be our best chance of having severe weather. Check back often for updates. I'll keep you advised.

-Steve

Weather photo of the day: May Moon

Hole In The Donut!

My wife (downstate taking care of her elderly parents and the family farm near Waco) called me last night and said they had tornados nearby. I fired up Weather Tap and watched (via their excellent HD radar) storm after storm dropping "hook echoes" the unmistakeable radar-signature of a tornadic storm.

Although hook echoes are common, the following radar frame capture is not. It shows the "hole in the donut" or the eye of a tornado (with all of the usual radar reflecting water vapor and debris literally spun out) creating an almost perfect vacuum!

In that perfect hole there is basically nothing for the radar to bounce off of, hence the hole.

Usually you don't see this unless the tornado is very close to the radar (like a Doppler on Wheels image) or the tornado is very big and unusually organized in the center.

Cool indeed!

-Steve

Not exactly a tornado ...

.. but a distant cousin. Dust Devil shot near Childress Texas in 2007.

Skyscapes 2007

Drats! Good day- Sunshine

Stay tuned!

The weatherman promises more storms next week. Undoubtedly we will be out there when they arrive to document nature's beauty and and fury so check back often.

Mother Nature - did anyone ever tell you you are beautiful when you are angry?

-Steve

Pastel Morning

The rain left us with a nice dew on the grass and beautiful pastel skies.

No rain in the forecast for at least a week, so we'll enjoy the moisture while we can.

Undoubtedly these yellow fields wil green up fast. I hope it lasts - for a bit at least.

-Steve

It Rained!

A Texas Meadow Lark seems to be singing because we actually got some rain!

We've been so dry for so long that our only forecast has been for wildfires. Although it wasn't exactly a drought-buster, we did get over an inch of precipitation and every drop helps.

I guess washing my car did pay off after all!

Purple Wave

Don't like the weather? - Just wait a few.

It is wonderful to me that when one finds the "perfect storm" how it changes and can give you many, many different photo opportunities that differ greatly from each other if one just waits awhile.

Especially at "magic time" AKA: sunset.

With the rapidly changing lighting conditions, more details and wonderful hues appear.

As the sky grew darker, I put my camera on a tripod, adjusted the exposure and kept shooting, even though my camera was telling me that the light was gone.

By just lengthening the exposure time ( taking the camera off auto) I'm able to trick the camera into thinking there is more light than there is. Keep in mind though, this does have the tendency to increase noise or grain in the photo

However, if you know your PhotoShop filters you can reduce the noise to something acceptable.

See photo below as an example of how even though the Sun was practically gone, you can still shoot and get beautiful results.

Don't be afraid to take your camera off AUTO!

-Steve

Another View

Orange Waves

A Simply Amazing Storm

Yesterday we were expecting severe weather, but really didn't get any. However we did get some storms to the south of us.

Hoping that they might move up into the city, I headed to my friend Ken Hanson's place on the Claude Highway that gives an excellent view of the southern sky.

When I got there, Ken was flying his parasail kite. I gave it a try and it nearly lifted this big ol' boy off the ground. The winds were picking up from the south and it smelled like rain, something we haven't seen here in a long,long time.

I then noticed a band of storms to the south and southeast. The photographer part of me suddenly realized that the sun was setting soon and should light up the storms bright orange.

Ken and I jumped in our car and raced east hoping to find a place without telephone wires or any other obstructions to mar any photographs.

We turned down a country road and were greeted with an amazing sight.

The setting sun was hitting the underside of the storm anvils which were dripping with rolling mammatus.

The entire storm was also twisting in on itself like a huge wave crashing on a beach.

We shot until way after the sun set and the results are posted here. Follow this link: http://www.webbfeatproductions.com/panS.jpg - or click on the title of this post to see a bigger version of the panoramic image.

So no tornados, but you really don't need them to show you just how dramatic and epic the skies in the Texas Panhandle can be.
Not only that, but as a result of this storm system, later that night these same storms turned into a huge wave of good old soaking rain that will turn the Great Plains green again and stop the wild fires -- at least for a little while.

-Steve Douglass

Simply Amazing!

First Severe Weather Event Last Night.

We had our first severe weather event last night.

Big storms fired up in New Mexico and slowly made their way into the Texas Panhandle.

Around 9:00 PM a big cell shot up (within minutes) just west of town near Bushland, Texas.

Since we were expecting severe weather, I had already put all my gear in my car so when the call came for spotters to go into the field and watch the storm to our west/northwest, I was all set to go.

I phoned my friend John Madden who hadn't been on a storm chase yet ( and was standing by) and told him I'd pick him up in five.

Since the storms were such slow movers we thought we had plenty of time to get into position, but we had barely gotten on the road when the NOAA weather radio went off.

A tornado was indicated by radar just NW of the city and there were several citizen reports of a rope tornado near the town of Wildorado.

I called my "Nowcaster" Dale Stanton who was reading the weather radar for me and he said it would probably clip the NW side of the city (where my daughter Jennifer and grandkids live) so we put it in high gear, sped around loop to the NW side of town to "the spot" on Brickplant Road.

As we traveled north, the lightning to our west was amazing, but since we were in a active tornado warning, I could not stop to shoot it. I just hoped that by the time we got to our overlook on the hill it would still be booming and zooming.

I called and warned my daughter and she took the kids to our place in town. She told me later that the kids were grumbling that they had to be yanked out of bed and she said , "So next time I shouldn't wake you and just let the tornado get us huh?"

They didn't have a comeback other than "Oh noooo!"

And then it happened -- nothing. The storm died in a matter of minutes.

Both John and I set up our cameras to try and capture the few remaining bolts, but they were far and few between or stayed high in the clouds and only dimly lit up the sky.

Oh well, sometime you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you.

The EOC released us just before 11:00 PM and we chatted amiably as we headed back into town.

Not much to show for our efforts but they promise more big storms today, a daytime severe event which should be much more photogenic. Stay tuned.

-Steve

Special thanks to Dale Stanton. His excellent Nowcasting kept us out of trouble and put us right where we needed to be.

Panhandle Skies Video Podcast #2

Storm Features

Getting the Big Picture ...

The unmarked photograph below is one I snapped of a tornado in Carson County, NE of Amarillo. To the weather novice it is jut s a cool picture of a twister but to a storm spotter it is a portrait of the mechanics that come together to make up a tornado.

Click on each picture to get an enlarged view.

I've also posted labeled versions of the same picture, highlighting areas that are of interest to storm spotters.

Especially of note is the "dry notch" caused by the Rear Flanking Downdraft AKA RFD. Many storm spotters have noticed this clear area forming just prior to the spawning of a tornado. The RFD is composed of winds rushing down behind the storm, forced down by slamming into the jet-stream high above. Once the RFD hits the ground it spreads out with some of the winds possibly enhancing the wind divergence (and thus spin) in the storm

Other features of note are the "Beaver Tail" a jet of moist air feeding into the updraft adding even more fuel to the fire metaphorically speaking. The Beaver Tail can be see on the right side of the photo (click on the picture to enlarge) as a cloud formation leading into the wall cloud.

-Steve Douglass

The Tornado PIcture

The Big Picture