Friday, March 30, 2012

A couple more from 03/29/2012

Storm forming
Multiline forming

Closer to dusk

Lightning at Dusk

I thought the Sun looked haunted.

Lightning taken from front porch

Storms 03282012 and 03292012

There was a lot of low level shear (winds heading in different directions with height) and a small chance of tornadoes.  Storms that developed were primarily thought to be hail makers and windstorms.  The shear gave a tiny chance to funnels and tornadoes. . . which came after dark.  











The storms formed near a stationary front and essentially dropped all their rain on the same area for about three hours.  I took this near sunset facing east.  Notice the slightly puffed top on the left anvil.  The storms inflow was strong enough that it broke through the anvil (top flat part of the storm) three times in an hour.  Both of these storms created tornadoes.  At this time, I don't believe any damage was reported.

March 29, 2012 had a slight chance of storms, but once I got off work and realized the storms were beginning to fire, and fire quickly.  This photo was taken near the town of Bentley, Kansas.











The storms slowly moved and turned severe.  Then decided to stall and hail.





Sunday, March 25, 2012

More space

Don't be alarmed, the blog has not changed scope.  Learning a little elementary astrophotography.

Venus, Jupiter, and Moon




Venus

Mars (center) Satellite and plane 

Saturday, March 24, 2012

New Camera

New camera is in my hands and a handy dandy lightning detector arrived as well.

Last night with after a week of nearly continuous rain, we had clear sky.  Just after sundown I went out and shot this off the deck.  I'm still a little too close to the city, but this gave me an idea what I can do.

There are several issues I realized.  I need a shutter release or timed release, I'm too close to city lights, out of focus but as stated, these are some of my first shots.  More to come on clear nights and when storms hit the area.

The bright spot on the picture is Venus, below in the tree is Jupiter.  Looking due west at 9:00pm.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

In Memory . . .

1990 Chevy POS
3/2010 to 3/2012

Old friend, I bought you for adventure, then we had seasons of drought.  I fixed you up the best I could, then realized when the need arose, you might not be ready.

Today, you passed on and someone new drove you down the street.  This year there will be adventures, but you will be with a new family.

May you have joy on your jouneys.


Even when the tree fell on you, you didn't get damage, you added character.

Tornado footage from Kentucky

Family's surveillance cameras rolling as tornado hits West Liberty


Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Solar Flares

Stolen from Space.com

Class X Flare inbound


Our friend the sun isn't feeling well and threw up.  Not the "I ate too much milkshakes and my tummy is upset", more like Exorcist unrelenting torrents of pea soup puke.  Tuesday it released a Class X flare towards the Earth.  Meaning we may see aurora activity in the Midwest, have radio/satellite blackouts,  planes may have to fly at lower altitudes for radiation concerns and the International Space Station may have been set on pre-heat. Ozone, save us now . . . 


UPDATE: NOAA is reporting that this may be a glancing blow but may trigger Auroral activities where not commonly seen March 8th and 9th.  The Wichita area will be looking at cloud cover and rain.
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Rememberences of Last Year

One huge storm system, 81 reported tornados (some reports may have been duplicated), 32 dead.