Thursday, July 8, 2010
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Spooky - but harmless...
Tropical shelf-cloud hangs low over Amarillo skyline at sunset.
-Steve Douglass
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Epic Voltage!
A totally epic thunderstorm blew into Amarillo last night. I had never seen so many bolts. My guess it averaged three or four bolts a minute. Here are just a few I shot from the Claude Highway looking south.
-Steve Douglass
Click to enlarge:
I saw this row of utility poles getting slammed. Shot with a telephoto from the back seat of my car with the camera mounted on a tripod. Exposure was in the neighborhood of a minute at F/32. ISO 50
After I came home (around 10 PM) and after a quick change of batteries, I went out again unable to resist having another go at the light-show going on to our SE.
While I was shooting - I kept hearing a "thump" under my car whenever the thunder was particularly loud. Eventually the creature taking cover under my Saturn revealed himself - a jack rabbit had taken refuge under my vehicle. He looked scared out of his wits.
-Steve Douglass
Click to enlarge:
I saw this row of utility poles getting slammed. Shot with a telephoto from the back seat of my car with the camera mounted on a tripod. Exposure was in the neighborhood of a minute at F/32. ISO 50
After I came home (around 10 PM) and after a quick change of batteries, I went out again unable to resist having another go at the light-show going on to our SE.
While I was shooting - I kept hearing a "thump" under my car whenever the thunder was particularly loud. Eventually the creature taking cover under my Saturn revealed himself - a jack rabbit had taken refuge under my vehicle. He looked scared out of his wits.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
Weird skies
I captured these weird-looking "wave clouds" coming into SW Amarillo this afternoon. As wicked as they looked- all they did was drop a few sprinkles.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Tornado risk today!
...THERE IS A SLGT RISK OF SVR TSTMS THROUGH EARLY TONIGHT FROM THE
TX PANHANDLE/SW KS TO THE MID MS VALLEY...
...TX PANHANDLE INTO SW KS THIS AFTERNOON/EVENING...
A BROAD CLOSED LOW HAS FORMED OVER THE LOWER CO RIVER VALLEY...WITH
A BELT OF 30-50 KT SSWLY MIDLEVEL FLOW EXTENDING OVER THE
SRN/CENTRAL HIGH PLAINS TO THE E OF THE LOW. AT THE SURFACE...A
COLD FRONT IS MOVING SWD ACROSS SE CO AND WRN/CENTRAL KS...AIDED BY
OUTFLOW FROM THE OVERNIGHT MCS IN NEB. THE SWD MOVEMENT OF THE
FRONT/OUTFLOW IS EXPECTED TO SLOW BY AFTERNOON ACROSS THE NRN TX
PANHANDLE INTO SW KS IN THE MERIDIONAL FLOW REGIME...AND
THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT IS EXPECTED LATE THIS AFTERNOON ALONG THE
FRONT. A NARROW CORRIDOR OF SUFFICIENT DEEP-LAYER SHEAR AND
INSTABILITY FOR SUPERCELLS IS EXPECTED WHERE THE ERN FRINGE OF THE
STRONGER MID-UPPER FLOW OVERLAPS THE SURFACE FRONT AND THE NW EDGE
OF THE UNSTABLE WARM SECTOR /MLCAPE VALUES 2000-3500 J PER KG/.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Severe risk today ...
NORTHEAST NM/TX PANHANDLE...
SHORTWAVE TROUGH OVER CO NOTED IN W/V IMAGERY WILL TRACK EASTWARD
AND PROMOTE SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS THIS AFTERNOON OVER PARTS OF
SOUTHERN CO/NORTHERN NM. THESE STORMS WILL EMERGE INTO THE HIGH
PLAINS BY EARLY EVENING...WHERE STEEP LAPSE RATES AND INCREASING
MOISTURE WILL BE PRESENT. ISOLATED SUPERCELL STORMS ARE POSSIBLE
THROUGH THE EVENING WITH A RISK OF LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Suspicious - lowering.
Looking toward Claude last night from Nw of Amarillo. This is not a tornado but what storm chasers call "a suspicious lowering: Inflow feeding into the storm. There was some slight mid-level rotation with this storm, but because of dry air at the surface they were high-based.
-Steve Douglass
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
The Maelstrom
CLICK TO ENLARGE
With no storms to chase tonight - I spent most of this evening editing this image in Photoshop. It was shot Monday night as the severe storms raked the city and the sirens were sounding.
When I first uploaded it into my Mac - I saw it had potential - but it had major problems. It was filled with electromagnetic noise (due to the lightning) underexposed in parts of the image and because the clouds were in motion during the 15 second exposure parts of it were blurred.
I knew it would take some serious work in CS-4 but If I could bring out of the mess the epic scene I beheld with my more sensitive eyes - it would be worth it.
- I spent over three hours "fixing" bringing out of the digital -muck this final view of that amazing storm.
I call it "The Maelstrom" and gives you a good idea what was going on in the skies over Amarillo that caused us to all lose so much sleep.
SAVE A STARVING PHOTOGRAPHER - BUY THIS PRINT!
-Steve Douglass
With no storms to chase tonight - I spent most of this evening editing this image in Photoshop. It was shot Monday night as the severe storms raked the city and the sirens were sounding.
When I first uploaded it into my Mac - I saw it had potential - but it had major problems. It was filled with electromagnetic noise (due to the lightning) underexposed in parts of the image and because the clouds were in motion during the 15 second exposure parts of it were blurred.
I knew it would take some serious work in CS-4 but If I could bring out of the mess the epic scene I beheld with my more sensitive eyes - it would be worth it.
- I spent over three hours "fixing" bringing out of the digital -muck this final view of that amazing storm.
I call it "The Maelstrom" and gives you a good idea what was going on in the skies over Amarillo that caused us to all lose so much sleep.
SAVE A STARVING PHOTOGRAPHER - BUY THIS PRINT!
-Steve Douglass
The little jet and the giant face ..
A thunderhead, that popped up yesterday evening, appears to be looking up at a high-altitude jet.
-Steve Douglass
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
In so little time ...
This sequence of photos (taken five minutes apart) show how fast a few clouds can turn into a storm. Photographed over SW Amarillo last PM.
- Steve Douglass
Cloud shadows.
One thing I love about storm is how their color and dimensionality interact. In this photo, the small cloud towers growing in the foreground (left bottom) cast a giant shadow on the super-cell thunderstorm in the background.
- Steve Douglass
Bloody sky ...
Sodium vapor lights on Loop 335 tinge the approaching storm blood-red.
-Steve Douglass
-Steve Douglass
Moon Lightning.
It's rare that you can catch a lightning storm and the moon in the same shot.
I shot this from Farmers Lane - just before all hell broke loose.
I'll post more tomorrow.
-Steve Douglass
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