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Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Extreme & Beautiful Weather


"QUANTUM SHOT" #276
Link - article by Avi Abrams



Majestic Skies Created by Powerful Storms

Since our last "Mammatus, Lenticular & Other Extreme Clouds" article, the good old Nature kept giving the photographers great opportunities for stunning shots. Problem is, great celestial displays are often followed by some nasty storms... which hardly anybody would want to witness firsthand.

We'll start with a "Clouds Beauty Contest". Most sources are listed directly under the photos, though some original credits remain unknown. We mentioned "Clouds Appreciation Society" as a premier destination for cloud-watchers & photographers before, and it remains the "one-stop" website with more and more spectacular submissions every day. Among the other sources of this article, you will see a few examples out of thousands worthy pictures displayed there.

Cloud "Explosions" - Cumulonimbus cloud formations, building up to powerful storms.






(photos credit: Karen Titchener, Cloud Aprreciation Society)


(photo credit: Mike Adkinson)


(image credit: "King Herald" Paul)


(photo credit: Cobalt Osanga)

Crown of Glory:

(photo credit: John Deed)

In this picture both lenticular and mammatus clouds combine in one crazy rippled texture, after the passing of a powerful storm:


(photo credit: Martha Tenney)

A storm front moves over Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station:


((U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Master Sgt. Ray Lloyd))

Clouds with an interesting shapes:

Angel wings -

(original unknown)

This picture was sent to us by Greg Hewgill.
He describes it as a trail left from a missile test:


(photo by Greg Hewgill)

Watching clouds & seeing shapes becomes a theme in the "Amelie" movie:
("Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain") -




It also shows how easy it is to make these shapes by Photoshop. The following series of pictures, though, is definitely real and appeared in Daily Mail. The most unusual ones are "the six-legged sky pig":


(photo by Ian Loxley)

and a "head of the sky dragon":


(photo by Felicity Norman)


Tornados & Wall Clouds

First, the most fantastic picture - the storm structure captured in its entirety, over Red Cloud, Nebraska. The linked page describes the damage that was wreaked by the accompanying tornado.


(image credit: Doug Raflik)

The blackness is palpable in this picture:
(and yes, there is 500-meter wide tornado in there somewhere)


(image credit: Ryan McGinnis)

A wall cloud developing under the anvil of a powerful storm is often a tornado waiting to happen... as seen on these ominous pictures:


(image credit: Colin Morris)

Over Veghel, NoordBrabant, Holland:


(image credit: Roel Kouwenberg)




(original unknown)

Tornados & Rainbows At Once


(image credit: Jurg Beeli, Cloud Aprreciation Society)

We are also reminded by the saying on his site that "It's hard to enjoy the fascination of storm chasing when people are getting hurt" (Alan Moller), so the combination of rainbows and tornadoes is really quite symbolic.

More recent shots of tornadoes, unfortunately uncredited:




(original unknown)


Rachel Rusinski took the following two pictures of Midwest storm looming over the plains in the morning. Right place + right time = amazing photography...




(images credit: Rachel Rusinski)

A couple of particularly spectacular lenticulars:
(or lenticular spectaculars)
Here is the "mother ship" over Lake Tahoe:


(image credit: Bryan Hightower)

Over Nairn in Scotland:


(image credit: Ulrich Brieger)

The winter is coming. Look up to see the dancing northern lights:



Northern lights over the erupting volcano!



The photo above came from the most fascinating collection of northern lights pictures by Sigurour H. Stefnisson. Make sure to click on this link to enjoy their beauty.


Nacreous Clouds

Nacreous Clouds, or Mother-of-Pearl Clouds are a pretty common sight in the northern countries (like the ones shown here over Norway), when the sun is low on the horizon in December and January. They are also called "polar stratospheric clouds". They are best visible in the early dawn of after dusk, because they reflect sunlight from below the horizon (due to their extreme altitude and curvature of the Earth). They also play a certain role in decreasing the ozone layer by bringing up the gaseous nitric acid and disturbing the delicate cycles of the stratosphere.


(image credit: Derrick Rethans)


(image credit: Pvv.org)

Cloud Wave

Finally something rarely seen and truly strange: Cloud's "Gravity Wave".
Time-lapse photography captures a huge rolling huge wave, consisting of smaller clouds. "A gravity wave is... a wave moving through a stable layer of the atmosphere. Think of a rock being thrown into a pond. Ripples or circles migrate from the point the rock hits the water. An up and down motion is created." (Tama, Iowa KCCI-TV webcam on 6 May 2007)





Continue Reading "EXTREME WEATHER" Series! ->

Also Read: Spectacular Lightning Strikes, Lenticular Clouds Gallery

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Category: Nature,Photography

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COMMENTS:

10 Comments:

Anonymous Antti said...

"Watching clouds & seeing shapes becomes a theme in advertising:"

The pictures are from a french film Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain

http://imdb.com/title/tt0211915/

___  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Look at these photo galleries: http://chamorrobible.org/gpw/gpw-20050129.htm and http://chamorrobible.org/gpw/gpw-20061021.htm

___  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The two photos of the little girl taking pictures of animals in the clouds is from the movie Amelie, not an advert.

___  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Spectacular Mammatus Clouds over Hastings, Nebraska


http://www.hprcc.unl.edu/nebraska/june2004hastings-mammatus.html

___  
Blogger Avi Abrams said...

great tips, all... thanks, i've adjusted the post.

___  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

the gravity wave looks a lot like being under ocean surf. just fantastic!

___  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

that second movie isn't Amelie, it's Tideland.

___  
Blogger Avi Abrams said...

Snopes seems to think it's from Amelie - link

___  
Blogger HC said...

Awesome pictures!

___  
Anonymous Rob T. said...

"It's hard to enjoy the fascination of storm chasing when people are getting hurt." (Alan Moller)

No, it isn't actually; not at all.

___  

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  • As for the CLEVER all all kinds of similar vehicles you should check out this one:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6vx98DjcVc

    It's called CARVER and is already in production, so this is already happening.
    Read more

  • I wanted to say the very same thing as the guy before me did. It's in production for a while already, it looks awesome. I've seen it around at a Belgian track a few times (Zolder), and in that vicinity it also drove in front of me a few weeks back.
    Read more

  • I know that's got to be fake, but I'm afraid someone will try it and kill their cat.
    Read more

  • The National UFO Reporting Center, of all things, now is located on a former missile base.
    Read more

  • for last items, it is not made of plastic rather steel covered with enamel - yours truly had a chance to touch it in past, it is cold enough.
    Read more

  • There are no nuclear warheads in Hungary and never was :o)
    Read more

  • Those were neutralized anti - aircraft missiles on their way to Ukraine to disassemble them. Great site anyway :o)
    Read more

  • Well I don't know - some of those traffic cops appear to have a suspicious 'glow' about them. ;)
    Read more

  • That's not a new japanese fetish, or even japanese. It's Macrophilia (giant fetish), known for over 50 years. The miniature trainset is for fantasy of being tiny compared to the woman.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrophilia
    Read more

  • hi
    the first comic is from www.wulffmorgenthaler.com
    what You have here must be a translated version.
    respects.
    adm
    Read more

  • Hello Avi,

    First, thank you for all these pictures on your website.
    I found the autor of some pictures ...

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/phitar/14366311/in/set-179428/
    and
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/phitar/320363895/in/set-179428/

    (it's the same baby :-)

    It will be nice if you can add the name (or a link) to this guy (Phitar)


    Best regards,
    Phil.
    Read more

  • Wonderful! I updated the credits, thanks.
    Read more

  • The second drawing - "I wish my drawings would come to life" - is by Matt Hammill
    www.matthammill.com
    Read more

  • i love this site & the posts are normally fantastic but this one was feeling a bit...half-assed to me.
    Read more

  • These are the people that will help show us all how to become Green and
    use fewer resources?

    wait.....

    ???
    Read more

  • The heart of Tokyo is Ginza? I think you meant Shinjuku. I've lived in Tokyo for three years and I've gone to Ginza maybe twice. Other than that, I think you captured the spirit of Tokyo and Osaka pretty well.
    Read more

  • Grotesque.

    Nothing says "junk-consumer-society" like corridors of neon.

    We humans are pathetic.
    Read more

  • In real life, these places look less brilliant than they appear in pictures. These shots have been enhanced to make everything look more vibrant and glowing.

    Tokyo is one of the ugliest cities in the world. All that neon is just garish and the buildings are pretty ugly. It has the worst skyline of any major city in a developed country in the world because it's all unplanned.

    It's still an interesting place to live and has many good points (great public transport, relative safety for a major metropolis, good job opportunities), but it's not beautiful.
    Read more

  • just got back from living just outside of tokyo. these pictures make me miss japan!!!
    Read more

  • Ginza and Shinjuku are both good for neon. The big Korean cities have some spectacular neon too.
    Read more

  • I wanted to say that the Iron Train that runs from Zouerate to the coast at Nouadhibou, is not the longest train..
    There was one in australia measuring 4.8 Miles (7.3Kilometers)
    And there is another in the United States, i don't remember if the raiload was located in colorado,but it's 4.5 kilometers long.
    But if you aim for ''Today's Longest Train'' you got that right!
    Read more

  • You should check out www.thunderbolts.info


    http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2005/arch05/050811richatrevisit.htm


    Like all Craters on every planet, (besides maybe the domed craters of mars which are giagantic concretions) they were carved by electricity. That is why they are all circular.
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  • the link of intrepidearth is uncorrect. Is 'dot' net instead of 'dot'com
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  • Thank you. Link fixed.
    Read more


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