Thunderbird. Clouds of the approaching storm spread across the western sky.
A well-defined line of storms was headed our way and looked like a good possibility for shelf cloud photos, so I headed out in the early evening to intercept the storm.
Radar Image of the Approaching Weather – My Location Near Center
Things don’t always work out the way one expects and that may be especially true with weather. The rule proved true but I wasn’t terribly disappointed because of the way things worked out.
Evening Flight. Sunset colors illuminate the clouds. A tiny dot in the upper right-hand area of this image is an airliner on an evening flight.
I could hear rumbles of thunder to the north and caught a glimpse of two lightning bolts: one from cloud to ground, the other within a gap in the clouds. But as the line of storms came nearer, the sun was sinking lower reducing the energy driving the weather. While the prospects of strong storm images dimmed, the developing sunset lit the roiling clouds in beautiful and unexpected ways.
Fiery Wave. A swirl of storm clouds lit by sunset.
Storm clouds moved and swirled as they passed across the western sky and rolled overhead, changing from minute to minute. No shelf cloud to be had but the show was wonderful.
Maw of the Storm. Colors fading and clouds closing in.
All but ended, clouds closed in ending the evening’s show, the conclusion of a glorious sunset storm.
Darkness Falls. Clouds cover the sky and the blue of nightfall tints the scene.
