Recent Stormy Sky

Taken for Skywatch Friday with my phone while walking the dogs.

Wild Sky

The timing on this post is unfortunate given what's going on around Los Angeles, but this isn't fire, just clouds lit up from beneath by the sun around sunset. This is another shot straight out of the camera, all I did was reduce the resolution for posting on the blog.

Skywatch Friday

Abstract Clouds

For Skywatch Friday, I thought I'd post this abstract set of clouds, seen earlier this year.

Yet Another Summer Sky

Today's high temperature: 67 °F (19.4 °C). Tomorrow night's expected low: 9 °F (-12.8 °C) That's quite a difference! For Skywatch Friday, let's look back to summer before it takes a break (it will be warm again by Sunday).

Summer Sky

For Skywatch Friday, here's a leftover summer sky photo.

Above the Clouds

When we got to the top of Mount Herman, it was amazing to have a sea of clouds below us.

Morning clouds are fairly rare in this part of the world, so this was an unexpected pleasure.

The dogs and I loved this hike, and I thought these photos would be perfect for Skywatch Friday, photos from the sky!

Rolling Cloud

Here's a storm cloud that rolled over my neighborhood a couple of weeks ago.

Skywatch Friday

Wild Cloud

This week's Skywatch Friday post is a wild cloud, photographed around sunset.

Rain Clouds

Taken on the last day in our old house last week, especially for Skywatch Friday. We had 4 months worth of rain in that week.

Unusual Cloud

I though this cloud would make a fun Skywatch Friday post.

Stormy Summer Sky

Skywatch Friday

Lots of Interesting Clouds

For this week's Skywatch Friday post, here are several interesting skies seen from my house over the last few weeks. First, a pretty watercolor. All photos are straight out of the camera.

These next clouds can indicate a severe thunderstorm.

My favorite is from a nearby storm after the sun went down, making for a surreal sky - if you look carefully you can see a little lightning in the middle-right of the cloud, illuminating it from within. I've got more shots from this storm saved for another post.

I love Colorado summer skies - there's always something to see.

Stormy Week

It was a dark and stormy week. (We also saw lots of sunshine, but afternoon and evening storms are common here in the late spring and summer.) Here are three Skywatch Friday photos from this week, taken on three successive days at my house.

Friday at dusk.

Saturday evening.

Sunday afternoon.

Cloud

I loved the shape of this cloud last week and the way the evening light made it stand out.

Skywatch Friday

Terrifying Skywatch

This was the view from our house yesterday afternoon. It's a classic pyrocumulus cloud from the local wildfire.

And here was the view as we evacuated this afternoon.

Homes were burning a few streets from us this afternoon. We're all safe, but I won't be responding to comments on the blog this week. Visit Skywatch Friday for more sky photos.

Unusual Sunrise

This week's Skywatch Friday entry is a sunrise with unusual clouds.

It doesn't have the deep reds we sometimes see here but I still loved it!

Classic Western Storm

Here's a recent summer thunderstorm photo taken from our front yard - this is straight out of the camera, no editing.

I love these Western American skies - you're literally looking through the base of the thunderstorm. And it's my Skywatch Friday entry for the week. And I'm also linking it to ein stück himmel (a piece of heaven).

I often get questions on how I get lightning photos. This one was taken around sunset. I used an ND-4 filter, which simply darkens everything without changing the colors, allowing me to take a longer exposure to increase the chances of capturing a lightning flash (this one was 4 seconds long). I shut the aperture down to f/8.0; I don't normally like such a small aperture on a digital camera because it starts to soften everything, but it allowed a longer exposure which is the key for lightning photos. I live an area where we get frequent thunderstorms. And most importantly, I stayed safe, the storm was further away than it looks.

Colorado Painted Clouds

For Skywatch Friday this week, here's a recent summer photo of clouds that could have been painted in the sky. This was taken from my front yard.

This is exactly what it looked like, it's straight out of the camera with no editing.

Strange Storm Clouds

Here's a long-delayed post. A few weeks ago we had a severe storm pass just to our south, and here's a photo of the clouds from our back deck.

It's my Skywatch Friday entry this week.

Wildfire Update

The wildfire on the west side of Colorado Springs got into the city this afternoon and an unknown number of houses have burned. I'm watching houses burn near my office on live TV. 32,0000 people have been evacuated including many friends and coworkers. I want to thank everyone for their concern - we live miles away from this fire and our house isn't in any danger from it at this time, but here's a photo from this afternoon from our deck, showing the plume of smoke rising and drifting over our house. That's all smoke - at times all I could see was smoke.

This is my sad entry for Skywatch Friday this week.