Kurt of Harbert, Mich., (10 miles north of New Buffalo) sent us this great picture of Sunday's thunderstorm clouds. "This is what today's storm looked like before it rolled through," Kurt said. "The photo was taken from our deck looking north in Harbert."
Thanks Kurt!
Tornadoes all too often assemble beneath "wall clouds". A wall cloud is the isolated lowering of a thunderstorm's cloud base often in the southwest quadrant of such a storm and frequently situated within or close to a rain-free region at the back of the storm. These dramatic wall cloud photographs were captured by John Denk during Thursday evening's severe thunderstorms, dramatically illustrating why trained spotters across Chicago's southern suburbs were concerned about possible tornado development. John reports the wall cloud was, quite ominously, rotating. Tornadic circulations have been known to occur beneath wall clouds even before a complete funnel is visible. This wall cloud was spotted and photographed by John near 177th and Central Avenue just east of Tinley Park. Many thanks to John Denk for sharing these shots with us!
--By Tom Skilling, WGN-TV Meteorologist
Photos courtesy of John Denk
It's not often lightning strikes as dramatic as these are captured in photographs. These photos were shot in Harvard, Illnois back on Thursday, July 20. Powerful storms, which swept Mc Henry County, unleashed these cloud to ground strikes captured by Michael Janesak. Many thanks to Michael for allowing us to post these here—and many thanks to Michael's co-worker Mary Davis who first called these shots to my attention!--Tom Skilling
PHOTOS COURTESY: Michael Janesak
This picture of an atmospheric phenomenon known as a circumhorizontal arc (sometimes called a fire rainbow) was taken in the northern suburbs Saturday afternoon July 22. It is caused by the refraction of light through the ice crystals in cirrus clouds. It only occurs when the sun is high in the sky, 58º or higher above the horizon, so at Chicago's latitude it can only occur from about mid April to late August.
The American Meteorological Society's Glossary of Meteorology explains that the most colorful circumhorizontal arcs occur when the sun is at an elevation of about 68º above the horizon. On Saturday afternoon July 22, the maximum solar elevation was 68º!
Photo taken by Jodi Kahn
HAIL IN CAROL STREAM
Thunderstorms developed in Wisconsin on Saturday afternoon and moved south into northeast Illinois during the early evening hours. Several of the storms became severe producing penny-sized hail (.75") along with heavy downpours. Robert Guico of Carol Stream was kind enough to send us these photos as a barrage of pea-sized (.25") covered the ground at his home.
Photo by Robert Guico
Photo by Robert Guico
Alaskans refer to Mount McKinley, North America's tallest mountain at 20,320 feet, by its native name: Denali. The mountain, in this photo forwarded to us by Tom MacPhail, was "out" (visible) in all its glory this past weekend. We're looking at Denali and the Alaska Range from a distance of about 30 miles as taken a little over two hour's drive north of Anchorage.
-- Tom Skilling, WGN-TV Meteorologist
