Tony's Takes Photography

Wildlife, landscape and weather photography

Thunderstorm towers over the Great Plains

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A severe thunderstorm towers over a windmill and the Great Plains near Simla, Colorado. (© Tony’s Takes)
A severe thunderstorm towers over a windmill and the Great Plains near Simla, Colorado. (© Tony’s Takes)

A throwback image taken in June 2012. Yesterday we got our first taste of severe weather for the year and while it didn’t deliver much more than heavy rain and small hail, it certainly got my adrenaline pumping. 

I haven’t been able to do much storm chasing at all in recent years. I go to work very early in the morning and coming home at midnight after a chase to the Colorado / Kansas border and then functioning at work the next day just isn’t possible.

I do need to try to head out on those ‘backyard’ chases close to home as oftentimes you don’t have to go far to at least get some nice storm structures.

This particular chase was near Simla, Colorado in an area near the Palmer Divide that is famous for seeing gorgeous storms. The storm did generate an EF-2 tornado which we only saw briefly as it was heavily wrapped in rain. While I didn’t get any salvageable images of that, the structure of the storm was impressive.

Lone tree in black and white

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Black and white image of a tree standing along on the snow-covered plains of Colorado. (© Tony’s Takes)
Black and white image of a tree standing along on the snow-covered plains of Colorado. (© Tony’s Takes)

A very pretty morning on the plains yesterday as our latest snowstorm moved out. Colors were subdued with the lingering clouds so I went to black and white for this one and am pleased with the result. This tree really stood out as the only feature on the snow-covered plains. Sometimes to stand out, you just need to stand apart.

Highway to Heaven or Beam Me Up, Scotty

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A sun pillar rises from the ground to the sky on the Colorado plains. (© Tony’s Takes)
A sun pillar rises from the ground to the sky on the Colorado plains. (© Tony’s Takes)

Take your pick but I am WAY excited about this scene this morning – a rare sun pillar. I have only seen pictures of them and could not believe it when I saw this appearing east of Denver, Colorado this morning. I didn’t have time to seek out a better foreground but am not complaining.

If you’re interested in owning one of these images, see here and here.

What causes the phenomena?  According to EarthSky.org, “Sun pillars or light pillars form when sunlight (or another bright light source) reflects off the surfaces of millions of falling ice crystals associated with thin, high-level clouds, for example, cirrostratus clouds. The ice crystals have roughly horizontal faces. They are falling through Earth’s atmosphere, rocking slightly from side to side.”

A sun pillar rises from the ground to the sky on the Colorado plains. (© Tony’s Takes)
A sun pillar rises from the ground to the sky on the Colorado plains. (© Tony’s Takes)

Iridescent clouds create a multi-colored show

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A very cool scene in the skies east of the Denver area this morning. These iridescent clouds lingered for a long time and provided a diversion while I was waiting for critters. We actually had some at sunset last night as well. Cloud iridescence is caused by clouds (usually cirrus) that have small water droplets or ice crystals in them causing the light to be diffracted, or spread out. The phenomena is much like the rainbow colors seen with oil in water.

Iridescent clouds color the skies east of Denver, Colorado. (© Tony’s Takes)
Iridescent clouds color the skies east of Denver, Colorado. (© Tony’s Takes)
Iridescent clouds color the skies east of Denver, Colorado. (© Tony’s Takes)
Iridescent clouds color the skies east of Denver, Colorado. (© Tony’s Takes)
Iridescent clouds color the skies east of Denver, Colorado. (© Tony’s Takes)
Iridescent clouds color the skies east of Denver, Colorado. (© Tony’s Takes)

Panoramic nighttime lightning illuminated thunderstorm

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Oh what a night! June 11, 2015 found me in far southeastern Colorado chasing storms. We chased this beast for a long ways and while it never did drop a tornado, it did give us some nice looks.

This image is taken after dark and those clouds are being lit up the intra-cloud lightning. It was an absolute non-stop light show.

If you look close, you can see a small town almost directly under the stormcell. It dropped baseball size hail and the straight-line winds downed powerlines.

Nighttime lightning illuminates the structure of a supercell thunderstorm in southeastern Colorado. (© Tony’s Takes)
Nighttime lightning illuminates the structure of a supercell thunderstorm in southeastern Colorado. (© Tony’s Takes)

Other-worldly clouds at sunset

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Winter sunsets and sunrises here in Colorado are oftentimes pretty darned amazing. For the late day shows, we oftentimes have wave clouds and lenticular clouds above. These almost alien looking clouds look cool any time but throw in the colored rays of the setting sun and the view is jaw-dropping. Such was the case this past Friday evening. From my home I don’t have a clear view to the west so instead I zoomed in and focused on some of the more interesting shapes.

Stunning lenticular clouds at sunset along the Colorado Front Range. (© Tony’s Takes)
Stunning lenticular clouds at sunset along the Colorado Front Range. (© Tony’s Takes)
Stunning lenticular clouds at sunset along the Colorado Front Range. (© Tony’s Takes)
Stunning lenticular clouds at sunset along the Colorado Front Range. (© Tony’s Takes)

A mighty cold winter scene along the Colorado Front Range

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A taste of the Arctic for us today as cold air refused to move out and left us with some pretty darned cold temperatures. The so-called “high” temperature at my house not far from here was 11 degrees. That does not make this photographer want to venture far from his truck to say the least!

This image was taken at Barr Lake State Park as light snow fell in the late morning and clung to the trees. I did walk around some, but it didn’t take long before my fingers were telling me I better get inside the warmth! 😉

Hoar frost and snow coat the landscape at Colorado's Barr Lake State Park. (© Tony’s Takes)
Hoar frost and snow coat the landscape at Colorado’s Barr Lake State Park. (© Tony’s Takes)

Sunset thunderstorm

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Going back into the archives for this one to June 2012. On a tornado chase near Simla, Colorado. The chase did yield one funnel cloud directly overhead and then a very rain-wrapped, obscured twister on the ground. Unfortunately, we were too far away to get ourselves in position to get a good look at the tornado. This was taken not long after when we stopped to watch the impressive thunderstorm as it wound down and obscured the setting sun.

A thunderstorm winds down as the sun sets on the Colorado plains. (© Tony’s Takes)
A thunderstorm winds down as the sun sets on the Colorado plains. (© Tony’s Takes)

Silvery and dramatic high altitude clouds

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It was a pretty darned chilly evening around the campsite on the last day of September and in some ways I wanted to be inside. I could not however ignore the show unfolding outside. Wave clouds had setup over the mountain peaks to our east and they had this amazing silver color to them. I had hoped that sunset would color them orange but that never materialized. As is though, they were pretty awesome looking. Taken near Estes Park, Colorado.

Dramatic clouds above Estes Park, Colorado as sunset approaches. (© Tony’s Takes)
Dramatic clouds above Estes Park, Colorado as sunset approaches. (© Tony’s Takes)
Dramatic clouds above Estes Park, Colorado as sunset approaches. (© Tony’s Takes)
Dramatic clouds above Estes Park, Colorado as sunset approaches. (© Tony’s Takes)

Fog shrouded sunrise

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A crazy cool scene this morning. Blue skies started things off and then this thick fog rolled in limiting visibility to 30 feet at times. It made for some pretty cool scenes to say the least. Here, it is thick enough that the sun looked like a pale circle on the horizon. Taken at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.

Fog shrouds the horizon not long after sunrise on the Colorado plains. (© Tony’s Takes)
Fog shrouds the horizon not long after sunrise on the Colorado plains. (© Tony’s Takes)