Thunderstorm Wall Cloud

If I had a wider camera lens, it would have told a bigger story. However, trust me that this was one impressive looking wall cloud.

Sundown Delight

Some days we get a beautiful sky with our scenic pictures, some days we get an amazing sky. Today was amazing.

View From Below

We only had ten minutes to view the Split Rock Lighthouse in Two Harbors off of Lake Superior before the park closed. So we went to the scenic spot for photos, just as the sun was setting. We were treated to an amazing sky, colors, lighting, and view.

Storm Chasers

One from this past summer as I headed into the storm.

Impressive Storm Front

While driving through Eagan last week, I was faced with these impressive storm clouds. I couldn't tell you which day it was exactly because I believe we had rain every day last week.

Clumpy Clouds

Storm passed through here last night, nothing much really came from it. Spotty thunderstorms at best, but there for sure was potential for more than what we received. This clumpy clouds contribution photo from swc was taken from his back yard as the storm was rolling through the Twin Cities.

Clouds generally have flat bottoms because the layer or boundary at which water condenses in the atmosphere is usually smooth and uniform. However, if this boundary is turbulent and mixed the cloud layer reflects this in its shape. Here well-rounded Mammatus clouds have formed on the outskirts of a thundercloud. Should these types of clouds be illuminated when the sun is low in sky, as they are here, the bias relief and colors of the clouds can be striking. Be weary of the of the weather if these clouds are seen in the sky.

Storms Over St Paul

I took this capture over the past summer as the storm clouds were rolling into downtown St Paul. Ahhh, I wish it was this warm out around the Twin Cities right now. It's currently pretty darn cold and getting colder by weeks end.

Picture Windows

Directly in front of me is the Minnesota Science Museum. Directly above me, is what you see in the photo.

Cotton Candy Clouds

On highway 10 heading north of St Cloud

Raining Fire

Caught this incredible sunset on Saturday up in Maple Grove. The colors were so vibrant, like I'd never seen before. There was a touch of rain in the sky, the weather pattern was changing and dryer air was out west headed our way. We were just leaving the restaurant and I snapped a couple of photos from this location. I wanted to get a couple shots without the building, so I jumped into the car. After roughly 30 seconds, the colorful sky was completely gone with just a dark blue and grey night sky remained. I am thankful for the shots I was able to get.

The Peer

The sunset from Lake Nielsen.

Spectacular Sunset

While having dinner at the River Boat Grill restaurant on the Harriot Island peer, we were treated to this spectacular sunset. We had good food, great company and the sunset was the icing on the cake.

Little Boxes, On The Hillside

Cumulonimbus Clouds

Thunderstorms ahead!

More Rooftops

Sunset Near

Photo I took of the clouds while I was attending the Park Wolfpack High School football game. The clouds were lit up very nicely with the setting sun. Shortly after this photo, the temperatures cooled with the absence of the sun.

Stars And Stripes In The Sky

Okay, make that one bright star and many strange striped clouds. So my wife calls me around 5:15 today and asks me if I had the camera with me, I did thankfully. She said I should grab the camera and take some photos of the clouds. She'd never seen anything like this before in her lifetime. What she described from her vantage point was there is the sun, low in the horizon with cloud rays coming from it [sort of like when you see sun rays through the clouds, but these were actually clouds] and the tube like clouds were from one part of the horizon to the other side.

She peaked my curiosity, I grabbed the camera and went outdoors to see the sky. I opened the door and there they were, just as she described. It was amazing seeing clouds like this. I can't explain how or why they were like this, I'd have to ask the local weather boy on this one. The photos don't do it justice as I couldn't capture the entire sky, but the cloud stripes were there from the western horizon all the way over to the eastern horizon, to the north and south as you can see in the smaller photos below.

  

My 3 Daily Photo Favorites:
St Kilda, Australia
London, England
Boston, Massachusetts

Today's Ray Of Hope

I snapped this photo at the four way stop sign in Cottage Grove. The roads are Jamaica Avenue and 80th street. This photo is about a month old and was from the batch of photos of an amazing storm clouds that rolled through the Twin Cities.

My 3 Daily Photo Favorites:
Aerial Photography - highly recommended photo
Greenville, South Carolina
Ioannina, Greece

Purple Rain Sky

I posted a couple of photos from this location taken a bit over a week ago now. The sky was an odd pinkish purple this evening while a storm was passing through to the north. I really liked the sky in this one and how it reflected so well on to the pond below. This was just a few minutes later from the same location as the sun set a bit more.

My 3 Daily Photo Favorites
St Paul, Minnesota
New Orleans, Louisiana
Berlin, Germany

Natures Bug Zapper

Another photo from the storm that rolled through the Twin Cities a couple of days ago. This was a storm that produced a lot of large sized hail, anywhere from nickel size to softball sized hail. Thankfully, the hail damage was no where to be found in my city. However, the cities north and south received hail. As I was taking photos of the passing storm, I managed to capture a bit of lightning in one shot. It's nothing spectacular, but I will count this as my first lightning shot I've ever taken.

My 4 Daily Photo Favorites
Ocean Township, New Jersey
Budapest, Hungary
Cologne, Germany
Auckland, New Zealand