Starry Night with a Near Full Moon.

Dim satellite to the left of center.

The satellite would flare in the sun or moonlight.

Simple Summer Storms

A nice cold front has been hanging to the north spawning summer thunderstorms.  I went out attempting to get some daytime lightning shots but simply ended up with cloudscapes.  Everything remained below severe levels and we ended up with a nice gentle rain.

Manmade Thunder and Lightning

Forth of July 2013

'Nuff said.

Analysis of the El Reno, OK tornado

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVTs55W3Iag&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Twilight Zoo

We are not talking about sparkling hippos here.

The zoo adds a night during the summer months that people can come and roam the zoo until 8pm.  Not horribly late, but the zoo itself seems more laid back.  With the recent colder weather (80's-90's), tonight was perfect.  

Sammi the Weathergirl and an Otter high-five.

Feed me.

Stand next to a person that makes them hungry.

Same lioness, different perspective. 

Black and white and red all over. 

I heard there are no more black rhinos in the wild . . . 

Happy 4th everyone

Bugs, Macrophotography, and Possible End of the Drought?

Morning Macrophotography.  Took the puppy for a walk and noticed ants on the Trumpet Vines, also they were covered in Ladybugs.

One of those, "Daddy, what is that?" Bugs

 Then in the evening noticed a huge anvil overhead.  Had to rush out and get the combine at dusk with a storm in the background, required in a Kansas Photographer Portfolio.

The storms stayed to the west of Wichita and dissipated.

 I could only see a couple brief flashes of lightning, but heard distant thunder.

Wheat's ready

Thunderbird?

Just a Nice Thunderstorm

After all the bad weather in Oklahoma recently and the loss of some great storm chasers at the top of their game, it's nice to have a nice summer storm come through without huge amounts of wind or hail.

I went out to one of my typical locations a couple miles north of Kechi and attached the lightning detector to the camera.  Lightning was a little close.

I believe this is positive stroke lightning that struck around 2 miles to the NW of my location.  There were multiple flashes of the lightning although I think I caught 3 of the same bolt.  This lightning can create close to 300,000 amps and 1,000,000,000 volts.










More lightning facts: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream/lightning/positive.htm