Thanksgiving Eve Photos
I took several sets of really neat photos last Wednesday -- Thanksgiving Eve, I guess. I apologize to our Photo Gallery viewers that I didn't post these pictures sooner; the sheer volume of them, combined with my non-blogging activities this weekend, delayed me until this morning.
First, I awoke to one of the heaviest frosts I have ever seen. Our yard and porch were covered with a fine coating of ice. Check out the whole set below. It includes some great closeups.
The set also has showcases some interesting shots of the AccuWeather building. Frost created ghostly shapes on the windows, which were reflecting scattered morning clouds, creating an artistic effect. For example:
Then, around 8 AM a weird cloud set up outside my window here at AccuWeather HQ. The shot below was taken from my desk.
Henry (PREMIUM | PRO) surmised that this was a strange wave cloud caused by wind moving off of the cloud shield from the Thanksgiving rain storm. Looking at the visible satellite picture, he seemed to be correct.
CENTRE COUNTY VISIBLE SATELLITE (RADARPLUS)
The visible satellite photo for our county shown above is a good example of how AccuWeather.com RadarPlus shows you exactly what's going on with your weather AND shows you where you are. AccuWeather HQ is located at the "X". Widening our view, the wave cloud actually covered three states and we were only seeing part of it.
CLOUD EXTENDED OVER THREE STATES (NASA)
SATELLITE LOOPS: AccuWeather.com Premium | AccuWeather.com RadarPlus | NASA
Here is a series of photos of the cloud, taken approximately every 5-10 minutes between approximately 8 - 9 AM. One of the best is shown below; all of the horizontals are shown at right and vertical shots are also available.
As the air jumping off the storm system continued to form and reshape the cloud, very interesting waves were apparent, and even some rotating cloud "funnels" such as this one:
This is the second time I've photographed this phenomenon (I'll try to find the other photo tonight) and I'm not sure what it's called. If you know, let me know. And also if you look in this photo you can see a triangular cloud at the right was being sucked into the system. Weird stuff.
As if that wasn't enough, when the sun set that evening the wave clouds remained and were lit up with incredible colors. Some of the clouds exhibited mammatus-like features. You can see the whole set below.
One of these photos, I believe, has become one of my all-time favorites. I took it facing south over My New Car [JessePedia]. There's just something about the contrast of the car, versus the sunset (look at the details on those clouds in the lower left!) and the green street sign (which caught the flash).
