CloudSpirit

On 21 Sep, thunderstorms began the day and ended the day over Cheyenne, Wyoming. From morning rainbow to late day rainbow, thunderstorms slow development provided ample opportunity to capture nature's beauty and force at its finest. When sky cleared, I was treated to a fly-over of Starlink satellites and at the same time continuous lightning over western Nebraska. The summer of 2023 will long be remembered as wet, stormy, and full of surprises!

Taken in Oracle, Arizona. Captured a brief surge of an otherwise weak summer monsoon. Lots of lightning, heavy rain, colorful sunsets. Video was recorded in slow motion (240 fps).

While high pressure has cut off the Southwest Monsoon, the northern boundary of this high has helped to produce daily severe weather during the last of July and early August 2023. Taken from Cheyenne, Wyoming. In this clip, I highlighted several weather phenomena including, roll cloud, shelf cloud, lightning hitting tree (1150 feet away), ball lightning or transformer exploding? and rapid convective rain curtains in time lapse, fire sky sunset, etc. Worth viewing in its entirety.

Another day, another round of severe thunderstorms. This event developed quickly as noted by the GOES imagery. What started as a beautiful day turned dark as a storm moved through Cheyenne, Wyoming at 60 mph. After departing, the anvil produced a large display of mammatus clouds. Additionally, a secondary thunderstorm formed under the anvil and developed the classic thunderstorm look with a large flat anvil. Finally, the sunset was a fire sky worthy of a great photo op day. I was on the edge of all the activity and received only 0.02 inch of rain. Thunder was continuous for over 30 minutes but I witnessed no cloud to ground lightning.

This upload to focuses on an amazing lightning display recorded during the golden and blue hours after sunset. I thought Bach's "C Major Prelude" was actually a great companion to this time-lapse. This is one of my most favorite classical piece that fit with one of my favorite weather events.

During the month of July 2023, a very strong ridge of high pressure aloft over the Southwest US has contributed to record heat and has delayed the annual summer monsoon. However, a weather phenomena known as the Ring of Fire (not to be confused with the earthquake and volcanos that ring the edge of the crustal plates along the oceanic perimeters), occurs on its periphery of these high pressure domes. This region develops isolated to scattered thunderstorms when the atmosphere doesn’t usual favor development. In the time lapse clip, the formation of lenticular (ufo sharped clouds) and the development of contrails signal very strong winds and very cold temperatures at high altitude. When the towering cumulus interact with these conditions, instability is triggered and thus storms form quickly. Although this isn’t one of my more spectacular weather events I’ve captured, it is still interesting and important to understand. Living Voyage by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100594 Artist: http://incompetech.com/

Prediction for a severe stormy day verified in spades along the Front Range and High Plains of Wyoming and Colorado. Here in Cheyenne, I experienced at least 10 separate strong thunderstorms within 20 miles between 3Pm and 9PM. The one shown formed (~7PM) to my northwest passed overhead and moved southeast only to expand back to my south. Low scud at the end of this clip eventually transformed into stratus/fog with quite a lot to thunder heard overhead. Eventually, another storm combined with the one in this clip around 8PM and dropped 0.80" in 20 minute with small hail.

Using various cameras and vantages, I captured the approach and movement through my neighborhood of a severe thunderstorm that hit at 1:51PM of 4 July 2023. Because the storm was moving over 45 mph, heavy rains and winds gusting over 45 mph didn't last long. However, a beautiful roll cloud formed just ahead of the storm and was quite photogenic. The satellite time-lapse at the beginning of this clip shows the specific storm over southeast Wyoming. More storms followed later in the day but that's another story.

Isolate thunderstorm over the High plains of Wyoming often ignite supercell structure capable of producing tornadoes and large hail. Fortunately, this storm got only to within 15 miles of my home. This was near enough to show a fully developed anvil and towering convection (including a wall cloud, fire sunset, and twilight lightning from over 100 miles away. This storm was worthy of a 60 foot climb on a hill adjacent to my backyard. This hike provided me with a 360 clear horizon. After a year's absence from Cheyenne, Wyoming, I'm back and well prepared to capture these wonders of nature.

In the time it took me to eat my McD's breakfast burrito, the following birds were captured while sitting in my car: Gambel's Quail, Desert Cardinal, Great Roadrunner, curve-billed thrasher, Gilded Flicker (woodpecker). Taken 13 June 23 in Catalina, Arizona. Not sure how many are nutcrackers? :-)

On 16 May 23, the first measurable rain was recorded at my home in Oracle, Arizona since 23 March! These clips captured various aspects of thunderstorm development over a two day period. Included are examples of towering cloud build-ups, mammatus clouds under spreading anvils, virga (rain not reaching the ground), a weak dust devil, storms taken from a drone, crepuscular rays, and sunset over the surrounding mountains. All were taken in time lapse. I hope you enjoy this collection taken with an iPhone, GoPro, and Eufy security camera. Next month, I will resume taking many of my sky images from southeast Wyoming so stay tuned by subscribing.

Time lapse clips of clouds and fire sky sunsets from southern Arizona.

This slow motion (240 fps) was taken with an iPhone 11 Pro Max during the height of this unexpected snowfall event on 26 Feb. Located at 3,560 feet elevation, this area gets one or two of these storms a winter. All the snow was gone 6 hours later.

Comet c/2022 E3 ZTF was closest to Earth on 2 Feb 23 but was not images until 7 Feb after the full moon rose later in the evening. This clip shows the comet between 7 and 11 Feb from Oracle, Arizona under moonless skies. For more details: https://www.flickr.com/photos/cloud_spirit/albums/72177720304740214 Emerald Therapy by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Artist: http://audionautix.com/

The first naked eye comet since Comet Neowise in 2020 approached the Earth and on 1 Feb 23 was within 28 million miles. This Comet ZTF is unlikely to return to the solar system due to its unusual orbit. I was fortunate enough to record the comet on every day from Jan 19th to Feb 1st except for Jan 23 (clouds). ZTF was a very fast movement comet and time lapse showed this quite well. After 6 Feb, it will be visible in the evening sky with binoculars before moonrise.

Clip includes altocumulus outbreak, opposition of Mars and full moon, and night time lapse, all with GoPro and iPhone.

With my new Velotric eBike, I traveled the boundaries of my retirement community. An air view of these trails are also viewed by air.

This commuter Class 2 eBike from Velotric was purchased a month ago and I have exceeded 175 miles and am having a blast. This time warp GoPro video covers ~40 minutes, 8.8 miles, average speed 13.3 mph through my retirement resort community (about 25 miles north of Tucson, Arizona) on 21 Nov 22. Temperature was a 64F with a light breeze. Batty McFadden - Slower by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-... Artist: http://incompetech.com/

Viewed 25 north of Tucson, AZ with GoPro 10.

At around 3:24AM on 31 Oct 22, while asleep, this fireball was captured on a GoPro 10 in raw format. This 30 sec, iso 800 image, ~109 degree horizon f.o.v. (looking from northeast to southeast). This meteor traveled ~ 35 degrees in this image. Glow at extreme right is Tucson. What was remarkable was this event created a smoke train that was visible for more than 45 minutes and was recorded as a time lapse looking east towards Oracle, Arizona. A Singular Perversion - Darkness by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-... Artist: http://incompetech.com/

After the summer Southwest Monsoon, frequent fire skies take over in the fall. In the coming weeks, I will be adding short clip of the best red and orange skies as seen near Tucson, Arizona.

An upper level low over southern Arizona created the perfect ingredients of high and middle level clouds to help produce impressive sunrise and sunset FIRE SKIES. During noontime, a beautiful solar halo added to the atmospheric optical events of the day.

Taken 10 Oct 2022 from near Oracle, Arizona with GoPro 10. With cooler temperatures, convective activity must eventually end. Although there is forecast rains in a few days, I believe strong storm development is highly unlikely. Today's activity was the garden popcorn variety. Very photogenic but little in the way of threatening.

Despite the end of the monsoon season over southeast Arizona, impressive storms persist.

The monsoon ended 30 Sep but don't tell the calendar. A weather front moved through Arizona late on 3 Oct and stayed active until sunrise the next day. Captured with GoPro 10 and Fujifilm X-T3.