Hangs in the Air

We had a localized but vigorous storm yesterday. I was in town. Ann was here, unsuspecting, and almost got caught outside when it suddenly swept over.

A very close lightning strike kicked my surge protector and knocked off (but not out) my MacPro. Other than that, some wind and rain, it was no big event.

It did provide some nice atmospheric evidence of unusual conditions by way of this nice bevy of mammatocumulus clouds–or just mammatus clouds. I took this shot yesterday around 6 pm.

The hanging “breasts” are pockets formed from sinking moist air. Such clouds are sometimes seen before–but more often after–a severe storm or tornado.

You can see a great variety of these clouds via Google Images.

While the storm did offer enough rain so that I don’t have to water today, it did almost nothing to replace water lost but not replenished during an extending dry spell for our area–but not so much just east and west of us.

By the way, there is a recently-produced draft of the new Floyd Water documentary that is in later stages of editing. I’ve seen the draft, and it is something to be proud of. I’ll certainly post a link when we get the word it is in final form.

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fred
fred

Fred First holds masters degrees in Vertebrate Zoology and physical therapy, and has been a biology teacher and physical therapist by profession. He moved to southwest Virginia in 1975 and to Floyd County in 1997. He maintains a daily photo-blog, broadcasts essays on the Roanoke NPR station, and contributes regular columns for the Floyd Press and Roanoke's Star Sentinel. His two non-fiction books, Slow Road Home and his recent What We Hold in Our Hands, celebrate the riches that we possess in our families and communities, our natural bounty, social capital and Appalachian cultures old and new. He has served on the Jacksonville Center Board of Directors and is newly active in the Sustain Floyd organization. He lives in northeastern Floyd County on the headwaters of the Roanoke River.

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