Skywatch Friday - Sun, Storm, and Rainbow

Believe it or not, despite all my pictures of snow and storms, the weather here is usually very nice. We get 250 to 300 sunny days a year, and my first set of four photos shows one of those beautiful days from this past Sunday when I took Socks for a walk in Fox Run Park.

In the spring and summer, it's common for storms to form in the afternoon on these sunny days. You can see some distant clouds in this second shot.

The storms often form over Pikes Peak, as seen in these next two photos, still taken during that same walk. That's why I usually hike in the morning, as the storms won't have formed yet.

I have to keep up my reputation for posting bad weather pictures, so here's one from a couple of days ago, a classic anvil thundercloud seen in the distance while another storm was forming overhead.

And finally, a rainbow after the storm had passed. Rainbows are not uncommon, as the evening sun almost always shines after the storms move away from the mountains. Occasionally there's a fantastic full double-rainbow; this one isn't one of our better rainbows but it's the first of the summer.

Visit the Skywatch Friday page for more sunny and stormy skies.