More bad weather

View from the deck

For those of us who grew up in Tornado Alley, West Texas, there is no possibility of ignoring weather. We are hypersensitive to the temperature, the sudden pressure shifts that other people may not notice, and that weird green light in the calm humid sky that means a cyclonic wind is about to rake across the flatlands. Thundersnow? Sandstorm? Ball lightning? We've seen just about everything on the prairies except a hurricane. We know the power and the danger of bad weather--some of us have lost dear ones to it--but we are also fascinated beyond words by the awesome sight, even fierce beauty, of it.

Tonight we had a spectacular show, thanks to a rapidly mushrooming storm system that barely grazed our area as it headed out toward the Badlands. This one is packing some violence. We had some lightning, a few minutes of high winds and a bit of rain, but the main system passed by us and gave us a rare sunset as it moved away. As a true West Texas kid, I was outside snapping away with the camera instead of sheltering safely inside. We never claimed to be the brightest bulbs on the string.

The system moving over

Clouds and light

Closeup of icy mammillary clouds, full of hail

Sunset colors, magnified

Overhead sunset streaks, looking airbrushed

End of sunset light