2/11-2/25/12 Fires, rescues, and outhouses!

The title says it all! It was a exciting month with many things to shoot! Throughout the month I have collected a few images of various things that I got to witness around Rapid City and South Dakota.

First up was a wildfire on the 11th. It was only a few acres and started from a few kids playing with matches. It is really dry in South Dakota, as it usually is, and when there is gusty winds (every other day) any fire that starts with available fuels will take off pretty quick. I didn't get there in time to see the flames but arrived on the scene shortly after they got the flames knocked down. They were still putting out hotspots. Here are a few images:


The next week, on the 18th the fire department was practicing water rescues on the ice of Canyon Lake on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. I wandered down to the lake and got a few shots from a distance.


There was also the usual critters on the lake (they don't go anywhere no matter how cold it is!):


That same night, the Atmos Department got together for a bonfire. Here are are couple from that night:


A week later, on the 25th Dan D'Amico and I went up to Deadwood for the annual Nemo Outhouse Races. It was another gorgous day in South Dakota!


Well that is about it for now! If you liked this be sure to share it with your friends!

Storm chase season is nearly upon us and we are watching the models closely anxious for our first chase of the year! With spring break next week for SDSMT, we have high hopes for a system mid to late week so we shall see!

Stop by again!

Chip

2/7/12 Snow Moon in Rapid City

Nothing fancy. I shot a few pictures of the Snow Moon, the February full moon given the name Snow Moon from Native Americans because obviously, there were always big snows in Feb when it occurred. I was trying to get the moon halo tonight but the thin strato-cumulus were to broken to allow a full halo, so I call it a moon EXPLOSION!!!!


Thanks for visiting! Stay tuned as tomorrow or Thursday I plan to take a trip to the Badlands and get them lit up with the nearly full moon!

Chip

1/30/12 Rapid City Sunset

Nothing terribly amazing but it was pretty none-the-less. On an attempt to update my blog more often and to keep it updated with pictures I have most recently taken, I will post this account. Went up on Skyline Dr. again to watch the sunset. It was very warm today so it was an excuse to breathe some fresh air. There were some high clouds around as well that I thought would give the sunset a nice touch.


Here is the white balance warmer...


The high clouds began to thin out...


Clouds further south brought out some pink...


Mid-level clouds were advecting in from the northwest. At the outer edges some weak kelvin-helmholtz waves developed with the wind speed (shear) differences from the base of the cloud to the top...


The waves dissipated not long after...


The moon was nearly first quarter tonight as well and was quite bright. I tried to get the sneaky "lunar x" along the night/day line on the southern part of the moon formed from the shadows in the valleys but couldn't get it out. Its darn hard to accurately zoom into the moon and have it be in focus with a 100-300mm lense!



Well, that is all for now! Am hoping to get up to Spearfish area in the next week or so and take some pictures of ice off the waterfalls up there. Stay tuned for more!

Thanks for visiting!
Chip

1/22/12 Auroras in Rapid City

We were the only ones in the contiguous United States! Three waves were visible from 5-9pm local time (0-4z on the 23rd). I captured all three with the second wave around 8pm being the most prominent. Below is a few stills with the overall time lapse at the bottom. Enjoy!

I will be updating the blog with some other stuff soon too so check back and share it with your friends! I also started a twitter for anyone interested, you can find me at "@wx_chip".

Thanks again for checking it out!

Chip!

12/12/11 Rime in the Black Hills

Rime, rime, oh how I have dreamed about you. I always wanted to get macro shots of rime but have never had the opportunity to see it. With a moist, stagnant air mass in place over much of the northern Plains, I finally had the chance to see some. We actually went searching for a high point that put us above the massive layer of fog to get the moon above the clouds but couldn't find a place, it was just to thick. So here are a few pictures of rime that developed on the trees, weeds, and a park bench. The guy gold panning was a interesting foreground as well!



















Hope ya like em! Check back here every once in awhile for new pics! I will probably try to get more rime tomorrow before the pattern shifts and the fog moves out, taking the rime with it, and bringing even colder air. By the way, it was about 15F when I was taking these pictures. I also learned a valuable lesson, steel toe boots=bad idea in that cold of air.

Chip

11/19/11 Winter Wonderland

It is only mid-November...so why not dump a foot of snow and drop temperatures below zero? Went out and about on the town as the snow fell and got some pictures. Total at my place was a solid 12". Was pretty much snowed in as they don't plow the roads here till at least a day after the event, and when they do it, they use graders!









Any guesses at what the black stuff is on the lake?







Thanks for checking my blog out! Share it with others and follow!

Chip