Twin City Photos

I was visiting my parents in Maple Grove when the tornado started it’s path through Minneapolis. When I left them I took Highway 10 heading east. As I got close to the river, leaves and branches started falling out of the sky. Turned on the radio and heard the tornado was basically following 35W towards Forrest Lake. Always up for an adventure I headed up to Forrest Lake, and actually got ahead of the tornado, having driven through some torrential downpours. Near Forrest Lake I pulled off 35W and parked myself on a county road. The cell that had produced the tornado moved in, but this point the tornado was starting to fizzle out, and it actually got quite calm. I did get this shot of the leftovers.

I’ve joined the #teamphotoblog challenge lead by Sopheava of posting a photo a (week)day till the end of the year. Anyone that visits my blog knows just how I’ve slacked off over the last year or so. Even though I have thousands of photos stashed away, being my own harshest critic, I keep them stashed, collecting dust. So lets dust off some of those hard drives.

Coming in for the landing, the pilot did a slalom avoiding the thunderheads extending above the cloud deck. Eventually though you do have to go trough some of them.

For other skywatch photos go here

Couple of days ago this cloud descended over the Cirque du Soleil, currently performing in St. Paul. Not much happened in the immediate area, but unfortunately a young girl was killed by lightning from this storm about 30 miles east of this spot.

For other skywatch photos go here

I don’t think this variation of Cirrus clouds is to common. They normally are fairly well lined up in the same direction. These seemed to originate from a central band and then extend laterally in both directions, depending on their elevation. Since they’re shaped by the winds makes you wonder just what kind of wind pattern would do that.

For other skywatch photos go here