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.

Shine On

There ain't no love like a love that shines. Shine On.

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.

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.

Welcome To Minnesota

You think you're tough? Come to Minnesota and enjoy one of our typical winters....12-16 inches of snow with sub-zero temps for tomorrow....yee-haw!!

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.

Natures Bug Zapper

Dangerous storms rolled through the Twin Cities on Saturday leaving a bit of destruction in it's path. High winds, heavy downpours, and lots of lightning.

Cumulonimbus Clouds

Thunderstorms ahead!

Flash Floods Hit Cottage Grove

As I type, the second round of severe thunderstorms roll through the Twin Cities. The second night is more to the southern part, but just north enough to clip the city I live in Cottage Grove. My drive home from work last night was an adventure. I was expecting rain when I left my work place, and boy did I get rain. As I headed into the real heavy rains, I saw just ahead of me, what looked like the clouds had fallen from the sky. It was just pure white, as I hit, what I thought was clouds, it was raining like I'd never seen before.

At one point, I had to get off of the highway and wait for the rain to slow up as I couldn't see but five feet in front of me. Once I let the heavy stuff pass, I continued on my way. I drove through the back roads of Newport to get to Cottage Grove. Newport had been hit hard by the storm. I saw branches down, leaves on the ground like it was fall, trees in the road. There was several sections of the road where I tree, or two trees had fallen into the road. I had to drive on the shoulder of the road just to pass the tree.

The flooded road in today's photo was due to the heavy rains. I'm unsure if the sewer drains were plugged or if they couldn't handle any more water. This section of road was flooded. It was the four way stop at 80th Street and Jamaica Avenue.

Once I did make it home, the really heavy rains picked up for a second round. We were watching it pour out in the streets, there was hail, there was lightening, the street in front of my home almost became a lake as the waters from curb to curb almost were touching. Once the rains slowed, I went into my office, which is in the basement of my home. Oh no, there was water leaking into my office. It wasn't too much water, but my entire desk area had a pool of water around it. Yes, my two computers and all of my electrical work was sitting in the pool of water. I unplugged the outlets from the wall and salvaged what I could.

As of this evening, I have a fairly dry office, my electrical work is safely off of the ground in case the storm outside unleashes more heavy rain. I spent all afternoon removing most everything from my office so I could dry it out and get things set back up safely once again. What a storm it was.

Be Prepared

This is a site Minnesota Twins baseball fans have not personally seen since 1981, a rain storm during a home game. Always check the weather before you head down to the ball park. I did hear they sell ponchos at the park, however, I didn't leave my seat to go look for one.

No Ceilings

There is one thing I'm really going to enjoy with the new Minnesota Twins baseball stadium, capturing a beautiful photo of the colorful sky. On Monday, I posted a photo from the stadium with my camera pointed to the east, there was a bit of rain falling at sunset and a rainbow appeared briefly with downtown Minneapolis as the back drop. Today's photo my camera points to the west, showing off what remains of the suns rays shining on the bottom of the clouds. This too made for another great, completely different sky shot from the same location.

Twins Rainbow

I made it to my first Minnesota Twins baseball game in our new outdoor stadium. During the course of the evening, I was present with this fabulous rainbow to take photos of, darn the luck! June 1st is the monthly Theme Day photo, then be prepared for a few photos of the new ballpark.

We've Got Snow, Yes We do, We've Got Snow, How Bout You?

So yeah, we also have some snow here in the Twin Cities. Nothing unusual like those states on the East Coast are getting right now. We're prepared for this type of weather. We have plows that move the snow off of the roads. We have trucks that spread salt on the roads to melt what the plows couldn't remove. We don't usually shut the state down during 97% of our snow storms. Blizzard conditions, yes....three day snow storms without blizzard conditions, not a chance!

That right, this current snowstorm started falling Sunday afternoon. It continued through the night, all day Monday and it's now Tuesday and yes, it is still snowing. When I made it to work Monday morning, I noticed the snow was piling up on the roof entrance to the back building. The height of snow surprised me to say the least. Later in the afternoon, I that height had grow to the top of the roof. I tried to capture a photo as you can see below, but it was snowing so hard at the time, the snow, sky, falling snow all blended in. Trust me, the snow has reached the top of the roof.

Nothing But Net

Earlier in the year, a storm rolled through town with lots of lightning.

More Snow

Another capture from last weeks unusually early snow storm in October....

We Set A Record

My understanding is, the last measurable snowfall in the Twin Cities has set a record. Four inches of snow fell on Monday, this is the earliest record we've ever had that amount of snow falling in the Twin Cities. We're not alone, I'm sure you've noticed the cooler temperatures where ever you are reading this.

About 48 hours after the snowfall, all of my plants are dead, I've seen several trees where ALL of the leaves have fallen off the trees over night. Like that, winter has started.

Passing Storm

Wild Weather

The Twin Cities has seen some substantial thunderstorms roll through this area the past couple of nights. A combination of humid weather from the Gulf combined with a cool front from the north have made for a couple of interesting evenings. Friday evening, I had minor power outages, to the point where I powered my computer off line for the evening. Saturday night, I didn't see any rain around my part of town, but 20 miles north of me say a nasty storm pass through with reports of tornado touchdowns and 65+ miles per hour winds. Sunday we'll get the reports of any storm damage that occurred.

Rain Or Smoke

Driving home in late July, I noticed this very large flume of white smoke trailing up to the sky off in the distance. Now I knew it couldn't be smoke, it was too large of an area. Perhaps I caught a photo of the sky falling and those are clouds trickling down to earth. From where I took this photo it was mostly sunny, with the sun behind me, but across the Mississippi River and into Wisconsin, it was rainy weather. I figure the suns rays were at the right angle to brighten up the raindrops to give it the appearance of smoke or the clouds falling.