Mark P Betts
Hurricane over El Capitan
Last years NMGS Fall Field Conference was really a treat for many reasons: The first FFC in southern New Mexico in many years, it included the beautiful Organ Mountains, and my trip driving to Las Cruces was a visual delight.
Hurricane Willa was a late season Pacific storm that surged onshore in the Mexican state of Sinaloa.
Because it was a late season storm, its energy and moisture was rapidly incorporated into the large trough in the temperate jet stream sitting over the central United States. Wave after wave of wind and moisture raced across the desert southwest as the Mexican Sierras and the temperate long wave pattern shredded the storm.
I drove north from Van Horn that morning through one of my favorite valleys in Texas: The Salt Valley.
It was shrouded with clouds and all I could see was Blue Origins sub-orbital launch facility sitting low in the valley. The Sierra Diablo Mountains which are usually so prominent to the west during the drive were swallowed by the clouds.
The low deck of storm clouds was slowly rising as the morning progressed and I was curious about how high they would be at Guadalupe Pass.
They were still very low and they had hidden the mountains in the park. I drove to the Salt Playa and took some photographs of the rare scene of a hurricane over the park. Because I didn't have to be in Las Cruces until 6 pm, I drove back around to the Pass and waited for the peaks to emerge. I spent hours enchanted with this visual feast.
I should be showing you a time lapse series of the clouds streaming and swirling over the peaks and although I had an intervalometer, I completely forgot to use it.
It was spectacular, however, and maybe you can use your imagination and set these clouds into turbulent motion!
D0A9616
Hurricane over El Capitan
Last years NMGS Fall Field Conference was really a treat for many reasons: The first FFC in southern New Mexico in many years, it included the beautiful Organ Mountains, and my trip driving to Las Cruces was a visual delight.
Hurricane Willa was a late season Pacific storm that surged onshore in the Mexican state of Sinaloa.
Because it was a late season storm, its energy and moisture was rapidly incorporated into the large trough in the temperate jet stream sitting over the central United States. Wave after wave of wind and moisture raced across the desert southwest as the Mexican Sierras and the temperate long wave pattern shredded the storm.
I drove north from Van Horn that morning through one of my favorite valleys in Texas: The Salt Valley.
It was shrouded with clouds and all I could see was Blue Origins sub-orbital launch facility sitting low in the valley. The Sierra Diablo Mountains which are usually so prominent to the west during the drive were swallowed by the clouds.
The low deck of storm clouds was slowly rising as the morning progressed and I was curious about how high they would be at Guadalupe Pass.
They were still very low and they had hidden the mountains in the park. I drove to the Salt Playa and took some photographs of the rare scene of a hurricane over the park. Because I didn't have to be in Las Cruces until 6 pm, I drove back around to the Pass and waited for the peaks to emerge. I spent hours enchanted with this visual feast.
I should be showing you a time lapse series of the clouds streaming and swirling over the peaks and although I had an intervalometer, I completely forgot to use it.
It was spectacular, however, and maybe you can use your imagination and set these clouds into turbulent motion!
D0A9616