On my trip home after the stop for an ice cream cone I noticed some towering clouds on the northern horizon.  So I phoned my go-to meteorologist, Andrew, for some information.  He reported the presence of some thunderheads in the vicinity and found one passing to the north east of Britt.  I had planned to refuel in Britt but thought that I had enough gas for a short “storm chase”.

This is one of the images that he sent me, (which I got after arriving home).

It looked like these convective CBs were being stimulated by a weak cold front moving from NW to SE.

So I hurried north of Britthome and turned east on Hwy 522, where I caught up to one cell east of ESS Narrows.  There I turned the truck around and took the following images looking south while returning to Hwy 69 (and gasoline!).

Although it was the angry clouds that caught my eye, the streaking (that can be seen in the enlarged version (click on the image) is also very interesting.  The boundary between rain and non-rain can’t be that sharp!  It’s the angle of the  sunlight reflecting off of the raindrops that is causing those bright streaks.  I’ve never noticed that before!

The dramatic light in these shots can be seen when clicking on the images….

See that bird riding the updrafts in the far part of the “V” above?  (click twice.)

Uh, oh! ……

Storms are always invigorating, especially when chasing them with the fuel quantity indicator on “E”.