ray, ray, ray...

Chasing storms

The tornado sirens went off under clear blue skies, so we ran outside to take pictures (after looking at the radar and seeing that the only danger was already past and moving away).

The same clouds growing over time
Who says the midwest doesnt have mountains
The top of this cloud is now freezing - you can tell because it looks wispy. This means that the ice crystals forming up there will now start falling, reversing the convection that created the cloud.
By the time the ice gets to the ground, it will probably have melted and become big fat heavy raindrops. Almost all the rain we get starts as ice high up in a cloud that got too big and froze at the top.
This nearer range of clouds is now boiling upward even faster, its updraft propelled by the downdraft of the big frozen-topped cloud behind it.
These clouds are so tall - look how many different colors of sunset light they reflect.