06172012 Sunday evening pulse storms/cumulonimbi
Awesome cumulonimbus towers due to daytime heating developed around 6pm or so (just a guess lol) East of the Effingham area. These are known as pulse storms, or "popcorn storms" since they form so quickly in a hot air mass. Once the area stabilizes after dusk, the storms will eventually fizzle out, and bye bye.
I sat in SE Coles County right along the Clark County border for about a good hour and a half until being eaten up by mosquitoes, watching these storms form from a simple pair of cumulus congestus towers into a mature pair of cumulonimbi. The entire life cycle of these storms were VERY fun and entertaining to watch. 40-50 miles away you could see the tops overshooting the anvil blanket at times (a sign of a very strong updraft,) plus daytime positive lightning strikes (bolts from the blue) which are caused by positive charged ions in the top of the storm tower that find a negative charged ion somewhere out ahead of the parent storm, and bam, positive charged bolt! Bolts from the blue are very bright and dangerous since they can strike easily up to a couple miles or so away from the parent storm in a clear blue sky.
Another interesting phase I witnessed with this pulse storm complex was the dominance of each separate storm. From this perspective in the picture here, I was facing S. So one can tell that the lefthand side of the shot was actually E, meanwhile the right side is W. While this complex was maturing, at times one storm would look weaker than another...I am sure this was a dominance issue. One updraft held up more than another while the opposite side of the complex weakened...then, the side that became weak strengthened, repeat, repeat, repeat. The best storm systems I see in IL are actually multi-cell organized, and contain a feeder storm "a buddy" that keeps it going. This went on for a good hour, a nice long duration of activity for pulse storms - most the time pulse storms around here never hold up for more than 15-45 minutes.
This was a definite treat for me and a couple other local photographers/weather buddies I contact frequently. The lightning activity, the lighting, the landscape, storm structure, everything...it was simply amazing.
06172012 Sunday evening pulse storms/cumulonimbi
Awesome cumulonimbus towers due to daytime heating developed around 6pm or so (just a guess lol) East of the Effingham area. These are known as pulse storms, or "popcorn storms" since they form so quickly in a hot air mass. Once the area stabilizes after dusk, the storms will eventually fizzle out, and bye bye.
I sat in SE Coles County right along the Clark County border for about a good hour and a half until being eaten up by mosquitoes, watching these storms form from a simple pair of cumulus congestus towers into a mature pair of cumulonimbi. The entire life cycle of these storms were VERY fun and entertaining to watch. 40-50 miles away you could see the tops overshooting the anvil blanket at times (a sign of a very strong updraft,) plus daytime positive lightning strikes (bolts from the blue) which are caused by positive charged ions in the top of the storm tower that find a negative charged ion somewhere out ahead of the parent storm, and bam, positive charged bolt! Bolts from the blue are very bright and dangerous since they can strike easily up to a couple miles or so away from the parent storm in a clear blue sky.
Another interesting phase I witnessed with this pulse storm complex was the dominance of each separate storm. From this perspective in the picture here, I was facing S. So one can tell that the lefthand side of the shot was actually E, meanwhile the right side is W. While this complex was maturing, at times one storm would look weaker than another...I am sure this was a dominance issue. One updraft held up more than another while the opposite side of the complex weakened...then, the side that became weak strengthened, repeat, repeat, repeat. The best storm systems I see in IL are actually multi-cell organized, and contain a feeder storm "a buddy" that keeps it going. This went on for a good hour, a nice long duration of activity for pulse storms - most the time pulse storms around here never hold up for more than 15-45 minutes.
This was a definite treat for me and a couple other local photographers/weather buddies I contact frequently. The lightning activity, the lighting, the landscape, storm structure, everything...it was simply amazing.