The guy behind the lens

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Nature's Fury

This week across the United States has been an amazing week for severe weather. Twice in the past few days North Texas has had brushes with severe weather in the form of high winds, hail and multiple tornadoes. Luckily for me, our town of Allen missed out on the worst of it, but we did have a stunning display of one of Mother Nature's greatest predictors of severe weather. These photos show the mammatus clouds that formed over much of North Texas on Monday afternoon in advance of an outbreak of severe weather. These clouds frequently serves as advance warning of a severe thunderstorm before it actually arrives.



The one thing these images do not convey is the sense of motion that occurs with these systems. In the span of only a few  minutes the lobes of these mammatus will shift and change. This gives the atmosphere a feeling that it is "boiling" in advance of potentially "apocalyptic" storms.


Click in any of the images to see it in the original gallery.

I hope you avoided this week's nasty weather and can enjoy these images from the safety your computer!

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, John, that is just amazing! That sky looks like it's a rolling fire! What a brooding scene you've captured here; utterly fabulous! Really glad to see that you guys are alright in the middle all this; the news we see is really alarming. Best wishes.

Andy said...

I have seen many cloud formations before but never as attractive as these shots.

Sylvia K said...

Awesome captures, John! Really amazing cloud formations! Brooding is the word! My oldest son is the Associate Director of Design at University of North Texas and he's been keeping me updated on the weather there -- just glad it isn't as bad as it has been in the deep south!! Hope you have a safe, storm free weekend!

Sylvia

TexWisGirl said...

that last shot looks like water! beautiful! we had 3 rounds of hail here in one evening, but luckily the tornadoes stayed 2 towns away. i feel for everyone hit by those horrendous storms in alabama and other states... texas got off easy...

Julie G. said...

Wow, these are awesome images, John! So glad you are safe and sound.

Dawn Fine said...

Very cool photos ..Thanks for that information.

Karen said...

Cloud fury...fantastic shots!

Unknown said...

Great shots. We had these in Tulsa the next evening. They are a wonder to behold. I also posted photos for Skywatch Friday. Take a look.

Unknown said...

Scary clouds:( Keep safe!

Anonymous said...

Those are some very dramatic clouds! Great shots.

Unknown said...

They're incredible to watch. Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.

Deer Passion said...

I'm glad you missed the worst of it, but thankful you captured some of the beautiful cloud cover. Even at its worst, mother nature can still be beautiful.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you made out okay. I've been under some of these clouds before. They really can give you the feeling that the sky is angry.

Fotokarusellen said...

A great post and dramatic and beautiful clouds. Well done!

B i r g i t t a said...

Looks like a grey fire in the sky :)

eileeninmd said...

Wow, the clouds look very dramatic and amazing. Great captures. My prayers go out to the people afffected by these awful storms.

Müge Tekil said...

Thank you for sharing these extraordinary photos! Mammatus clouds are very impressive formations, I know them well because they appear also in our skies (Turkey), especially in the north-eastern parts of Asia Minor.

The images of the tornados that devastated entire villages in the US were terrible. Fortunately your town is saved. I send my prayers to the victims of this natural disaster.

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Anonymous said...

I think the sky, photos, looks beautiful,

Christina, Sweden said...

really interesting shapes of clouds!

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