It so far has been a very dry late Spring and Summer, with so many storm fronts approaching and splitting…. rain to the North, rain to the South and none here…. (The date on my blog is not coming up right, so I am writing this on July 25- time for some tech geek help to figure out what is going on.)
Wet Planter
When we did get precipitation, it was just enough to raise the humidity and barely dampen the bottom of the bucket I have used as my “rain gauge”. The lawn became pretty crispy, and some of my newest additions to the gardens were looking sad. The spring that I use to water my gardens and planters, dried up a couple of weeks ago, and I have had buckets in sinks to catch hand or dish washing water to use to keep planters and new babies alive without using too much from our well which likes to go dry in Summer.
Sky 01
It seemed as if every time there was rain in the forecast, all we got to see were white, puffy clouds like these. They are really pretty, but when you are praying for rain, not what you want to see every day.
Wet Nicotiana
Finally, on Friday July 23, we woke to a nice gentle rain shower…. heavy storms were predicted, and there were severe ones in other areas not far away- even a tornado, but the half inch we finally got was wonderful. The above photo is of the pink Nicotiana in one of my deck planters… the blurry flower had a drop off the eves fall on it just as I clicked.
Tomato
Another nicely wet planter… This one has a volunteer Tomato plant growing in it…. I left it there to see what it does…. the only tomatoes I have grown on the deck have been grapes, so I am hoping for similar ones.
Stormy Sky 1 8PM
The rain on Friday came with a very hot and humid air mass that hung around for the weekend. This photo above, and the following ones were taken Saturday evening. We began the evening listening to many severe thunderstorm warnings, then tornado watches and warnings. Tornadoes are not common around here, but this summer there have now been at least 4+ in the region. By the time I took this photo the sky was looking pretty “spooky”…. with pinks, yellows and black clouds.
Stormy Sky 2 8:25PM
This was the sky a bit later… The color doesn’t show great in this photo, but it did pick up all the different types of clouds that were present, from little white wisps to dark ominous ones.
Stormy Sky 3- 8:42PM
Shortly after the previous photo was taken, the rain started to fall. Heavy downpours were forecast, but things came fairly gently…. what we need to get moisture into the ground. The sky really began to change, and I was amazed that my camera got the colors pretty close to what they were. We were babysitting our granddaughter Jenna, and she had to have her stool by the front door to look out with her “Poppy”. The pink in the sky made the water drops on the door window look pink, too.
Stormy Sky 4 8:43 PM
This was the first time I remember seeing clouds that looked like this…. The puffy ones higher up were like cottonballs, not like normal cauliflower T-storm clouds, and the lower clouds were darker, wispy ones. It was spooky and amazing at the same time, especially knowing that a possible tornado had been spotted by the weather service in the county to the West of us.
Stormy Sky 5 8:43 PM
As you can see by the times of the photos, I was clicking as many as I could…. This one came out a bit more orange than the actual sky, but shows the shapes of the clouds great. It was a wonderful combination of bright pinks, oranges, shades of gray and even blue sky peeking in the distance.
Stormy Sky 6 8:44 PM
The colors in this photo are pretty close to what we saw… The trees in my Maple tree garden made some great silhouettes against the sky. It kept changing so quickly.
Stormy Sky 7 8:44 PM
This was a different angle, catching the white wisps below the streaks and ripples above in pinks and blue-grays.
Stormy Sky 8- 8:45 PM
This shows the blue sky creeping in along with more dark streaks following.
Stormy Sky 9- 8:47 PM
This is the last photo I took because it was getting too dark for the camera. I really didn’t expect the photos to show as good as they do with my old Kodak digital, but sometimes I am really amazed at what I end up with. We only ended up with less than a half inch more of rain from this storm… much less than fell other places nearby, but yesterday AM while in church we got another rain shower that gave us a total of an inch. An inch and a half of rain in 3 days… That’s the way we needed it to come…. mostly gentle enough not to wash right off, but soak in.
White Lily 2
OK, I have to add at least one more flower… The last bud from my newest Oriental Lily bloomed…. It has been glowing in the garden… I can’t quite see this one from my kitchen window, so it forces me to get out to wander the gardens to see it. That is how I have planted many gardens…. You have to walk around or through them to see all the treasures in them. I will have to give my gardens another day to recover from the rain until the Petunias and Phlox are “photo worthy” again…. the rain knocked off or turned flowers to mush… I am sure it will be worth the wait!
I am a former textile artist and new pattern designer with a degree in horticulture, wishing to share my love of nature, flowers and gardens with everyone through my photos, sunprinted fabrics, and now pattern designs. Chronic Lyme Disease has caused major changes to the direction my life. I have to limit the amount of time spent digging in my gardens, and quilting has become more difficult. I discovered pattern design as a way to get art back into my life. I now use my gardens and photos to inspire designs that can be used on fabrics and print on demand items.
Wow, those are some amazing shots you got of the weather! Stunning, and I love the images of the flowers. Very nice!
Great pictures, Sue. I love seeing those unusual cloud shapes and the wonderful colors. Thanks for sharing!
Wow! You were lucky to be at the edge of that storm!! Look like funnel clouds and mammatus clouds, especially grim harbingers of severe weather. Excellent photos, you should post them on Natl Geo.
Hi Sue – those look like the mammatus clouds I got pictures of last summer. Decidedly different, and great shapes! Check out my blog for the Mammatus clouds challenge! Stay safe – Lisa
Those are just amazing photos. You have done well to capture the shapes and lighting- oohh! Thanks for sharing
Great shots, Sue! The cotton ball/mammatus shots are awesome. 😉
Sue these weather shots are FAB! I have been doing the same thing for almost two years and if you were to paint a sky like that.. or fabric… no one would believe it was anything other than ‘artitstic license’… I am so glad you shared these.
Thank you.
Nice photos!
Sue, those pictures are amazing! What an inspiration for some quilts. When the storm hit here, I was too busy closing windows and not paying attention to the sky!
Thanks for sharing them.
Mammatus Clouds: — thought you might like to know you got some rare photos.
Mammatus Clouds. sagging pouch-like structures. Mammatus are pouch-like cloud structures and a rare example of clouds in sinking air. …
Fantastic!!! Please don’t ever go out without your camera!!! Those are some amazing shots. I need to use my camera more………..
Just wonderful sky photos! I love those cloud formations and all the colors. Pretty flower pictures, too.
Awesome cloud pictures! I have been told that the very rare mammatus clouds you photographed happen only when two separate, large storm systems meet. The area between the systems forms this cloud that appears to keep the storms apart, and usually there is little or no lightning/rain activity directly below the mammatus cloud.
I witnessed one a few years ago while at a large outdoor folk festival. we watched the two storms approach and then this very strange brown low cloud formed. It was creepy and the light was sort of golden/brown. I had never seen any thing like it before!
Heather
Wow, your sky photos are amazing. Thanks for sharing.
Sue, these are gorgeous and contain wonderful oranges and pinks…..NO Photo shop necessary:) You should enter #5 into a photography show.
R
Sue — These are fantastic cloud photos! I saw some mammatus clouds last year driving south of Seattle at sunset, but I didn’t have my camera and was so bummed. I haven’t seen any since. Your blog background actually looks like some of your sky photos.
Sue the pictures are indeed a special treat – a gift from you to so many of us who look for those special moments, that glorious beauty that surrounds us. Like you, I carry a camera with me most days…. and taking those memory glimpses has provided a good portfolio of inspiration for days when getting busy in the studio seems a challenge. Your amazing storm cloud pictures and the post on the cause of such a rare cloud formation is now something I will look for as we are approaching the stormy season here over the Trinity Mountains. Thanks for this wonderful visual gift.
Kristin
Sue…I attempted to post earlier from my abysmally slow 56k computer at home…now on wireless I want to tell you how awesome your photos are! They are saved in my clouds folder and will give me creative stimulation in times when my self is running on low….seeing beautiful photos from others always pushes me to look at my sketchbooks, look at colors and get myself to the desk, creating and drawing and then on to find materials to create…..Thank you for being such an awesome inspiration to so many folks.
Thanks for all the great comments and information about my clouds!! I have not been able to return emails due to computer issues…
I have learned so much about Mamatus clouds and weather patterns that cause them… I am especially glad I had my camera in the right place at the right time!!