...incoming shelf cloud...
...not sure what's happening here with the darker plooms coming off the cloud...
...not looking good...
...definitely not good...but this is still my favorite shot...
...following the storm were these really serene images...a full double rainbow, and a rare, awe-striking Iowa sunset...
3 comments:
I'm no expert, but that was all certainly a big gust front. Looks as if it may have even been a "Derecho" - we've had those before. The severe squall line in the shape of an arc like you see in the radar image is a sure sign of one with the bow echo - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derecho
lovely shots! i saw a full rainbow for the first time last weekend up at Okoboji. so amazing!
Hey Adam...Guess I'm not really up to speed on blogging. Sorry I'm just now seeing this on my facebook page but the pics are great. I agree with John C. Definitely a big ole gust front..actually it looks multi-leveled with a mid level gust happening too. The radar is a typical "bow echo" pattern or sometimes called a LEWP (line echo wave pattern). Many times the individual cells in the line outrun the upper level support and collapse. As al that heavier rain cooled air starts to descend, it picks up speed and crashes into the ground. Kind of like pouring a bucket of water onto the floor. It creates a lot of gust eddies in the outflow air...probably the plumes you asked about...and can even spin up a short lived vortex in front of it affectionately called a gust-nado. Sometimes the descending air will be traveling much faster than the air just above it and it starts to spin horizontally just above the ground. The clouds will appear to be rotating clockwise forming what appears to be a big long cylinder shaped cloud called a roll cloud or rotor cloud...definitely cool looking. If the air above the surface is cool and dense enough, the gust front will spread out at a higher level. That creates the multi-leveled shelf clouds in the pictures. It can definitely look like the world is about to end and for a few minutes when it passes, it will rain and blow like crazy then it just dies right down...like your title suggests. Sorry this turned into "gust fronts 101". Chasers never die, they dissipate.
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