2009 Station Fire (LA, CA)

Brandon Riza provides this stunning lapse of the Station Fire near Los Angeles in 2009.  This is perhaps the best illustration of pyrocumulus formation you'll find on the web.  A lapse of the pyrocumulus tops can be found in this video.

13 April 2012 Blair, OK Supercell

Chaser Stephen Locke provides the beautiful, HDR lapse of an "outflow dominant" supercell near Blair, OK during the spring of '12.

Marine Layer Waterfall

In a perfect illustration of the "atmosphere is a fluid", John Ochs provides this short lapse of the marine layer cascading over a ridge near Malibu Canyon, CA. Subsidence on the lee side of the ridge leads to compression/drying.

August 2011 DeKalb Shelf Cloud

As is typical with early-to-mid morning, warm-season mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) across the Midwest, they tend to be highly photogenic and feature laminar heads. I suspect this is due to the residual nocturnal boundary layer inversion and cold pool forcing air through a stable layer. This particular lapse was shot sans tripod from the interior of my car due to the stratiform rain falling ahead of the squall.

Animated gif:
2011.08.23_Shelf_Cloud.gif

Upward-directed Lightning

Tom Warner of ztresearch has provided these slow-motion examples of the evolution of upward-directed, tower lightning near Rapid City, SD. Both movies illustrate flashes that were captured by a high-speed camera at an astounding 7,207 frames per second. Regarding the second movie, Tom states: "An upward lightning flash initiated from a TV tower in Rapid City, SD ... the positive polarity leader moves upward and branches into two primary channels. The right channel is weak and develops numerous recoil leaders which try to reionize the decayed branch. At one point the branch sustains growth following a recoil leader connection. The entire video is about 1/2 second."

"Rossby Waves in a Tank"

While this lapse is not of the sky, it has a lot to do with what is found in the sky.  There is an entire site at MIT dedicated to these neat "tank" experiments.

14 April 2012 Nebraska Tornado

This lapse shows what was essentially the only northern play on an eventful day in the central and southern Great Plains.  Most of the tornado outbreak was clustered in central Kansas and northwest Oklahoma.

The short segments in the lapse show the view near Atlanta, NE, where we watched the supercell string out, produce an elongated clear slot complete with persistent slant funnel. Eventually, the low-level meso cycled, producing another slanted funnel that eventually tilted vertically producing a photogenic tornado. This tornado had more in common visually with a landspout, but was unequivocally due to low-level mesocyclone processes in a relatively weak supercell. This "Harlan County" tornado only lasted 3-4 minutes, but was a visual treat considering how cold the inflow was into the storm. After tornadolysis, the supercell continued northeast into an increasingly less buoyant atmosphere thanks to the rain-cooled air from the eastward progressing MCS now in Iowa. If the environment had even just a touch more instability, I suspect we would have had a handful of potentially strong tornadoes in this vorticity rich environment. A few animated gifs for lecture embeds follow. Additional stills and radar imagery are available on my storm chase blog.

  

Animated gifs:

2012.04.14_Atlanta_Tornado_1.gif [wide angle]

2012.04.14_Atlanta_Tornado_2.gif [RFD perspective]

2012.04.14_Atlanta_Tornado_3_large.gif [large gif of tornado]

2012.04.14_Atlanta_Tornado_3_small.gif [smaller gif of tornado]

Stationary Boundary and Convective Development

This short lapse segment photographed from atop NIU's Davis Hall looking east-northeast shows a stationary boundary that promotes convective development as unseasonably warm, moist air converges, is forced upwards, reaching the level of free convection. This day also was unique in that it featured a convective shower produced by the Byron Nuclear Generating Station cooling towers. An animated gif for PPT lecture embed is provided below.

Animated gif:
2012.03.23_NIU_Boundary.gif

4 May 2012 Iowa Whale's Mouth

This short lapse segment shows a whale's mouth associated with a southeastward moving bow echo near Clarion, IA.  An animated gif for PPT lecture embed follows.

Animated gif:

2012.05.04_Whales_Mouth.gif

27 May 2012 Kansas Shelf Cloud

This lapse features the tail-end of a mostly disorganized, messy line of storms in north-central Kansas. A pool of cold outflow induces a roll-shelf cloud hybrid. I.e., it starts out as a roll cloud detached from the parent storm, but then transitions to a shelf as the outflow generates new convection. Though difficult to see in the lapse, a shear funnel forms within the shelf near the telephone pole at 0.07s.

16 April 2011 Rain-wrapped Raleigh, NC Tornado

This local media-derived time-lapse clip shows a rain-wrapped, EF3 tornado from the top of RBC Plaza in downtown Raleigh, NC on 16 April 2011. Note: Clip may begin with advertisement.

14 April 2012 Timken, KS Supercell/Tornado

This lapse begins with a supercell structure perspective and zooms toward the wall cloud/clear slot cut during tornadogenesis.

16 July 2011 North Dakota Tornado

This tripoded lapse by Mark Rosengarten is a great example(s) of tornadogenesis and tornadolysis. Shot near Bowden, ND in July 2011. Note: I suggest you click "mute" for a classroom audience.

25 May 2012 Russell, KS Supercell/Rope Tornado

Brandon Vincent captured this segment near Russell, KS on 25 May 2012. The lapse includes clear slot/RFD, wall cloud, tornadogenesis, and dramatic rope.

15 June 2012 Kanorado, KS Shelf/Whale's Mouth

Chaser Stephen Locke captures this truly beautiful stormscape along the KS/CO border that shows an MCS with attendant shelf.

12 July 2010 Decaying Kansas LP Supercell

Chaser Stephen Locke captured these lapse segments of a midsummer, decaying LP supercell near Colby, KS.

29 May 2012 Piedmont, OK Supercell/Tornado

This lapse shows the life cycle of a northwest Oklahoma supercell that waited to produce a tornado until its last gasp -- soon after it interacted with the gust front from a northward moving, left-split supercell. Full details of the chase are available on my storm chase blog. I've created four animated gifs that can be included in PPT lectures to illustrate supercell features, including: RFD/clear slot, rotation, base, feeder bands, cyclonic/anticyclonic couplet, tornadogenesis, etc.  SPC's Severe Event Archive available here.

Animated gifs:

2012.05.29.Piedmont.Supercell.a.gif

2012.05.29.Piedmont.Supercell.b.gif

2012.05.29.Piedmont.Supercell.c.gif

2012.05.29.Piedmont.Supercell.d.gif

30 May 2012 Texas Supercells

This time lapse summarizes an eventful chase that produced a pair of beautiful supercells -- one "classic" and one "HP". I've made a set of animated gifs below the Vimeo movie that show the two supercells in their full glory. These can be easily downloaded and inserted into PPT lectures to illustrate features.

Animated gifs:
2012.05.30_Benjamin_Supercell_a.gif
2012.05.30_Benjamin_Supercell_b.gif
2012.05.30_Benjamin_Supercell_c.gif
2012.05.30_Childress_Supercell_a.gif
2012.05.30_Childress_Supercell_b.gif
2012.05.30_NCentralTexas_Supercell_a.gif
2012.05.30_NCentralTexas_Supercell_b.gif
2012.05.30_NCentralTexas_Supercell_c.gif

26 May 2012 LaCrosse, KS Tornado

Chaser Scott Currens put together this slideshow (creating a sort of choppy, but interesting, time lapse) of the 47-minute lifecycle of a tornado northwest of LaCrosse, KS. The tornado developed at 9:16 pm and dissipated at 10:03 pm.

Marla Bickler has a much closer view of the lengthy tornadogenesis mode ... I suggest a "mute" unless you like 80s movies.

Stratocumulus Undulatus

The animated gif below illustrates statocumulus undulatus, complete with horizontal vortices embedded. This cloud feature formed ahead of a rather unimpressive MCS that moved across the south DeKalb, IL region during the early morning hours of 16 August 2012. I was in the DeKalb wind farm region trying to time-lapse a shelf (which never really materialized) when I noticed unique horizontal vortices embedded within the stratus ahead of the line. The vortex features only lasted about 3-4 minutes before they kinked up and dissipated. I don't think I've ever seen such a formation documented before. Higher-res stills are available from my storm chase blog.

Download gif here.

Cold Front Passage Traced by Power Plant Plume

Dan Robinson of StormHighway.com shot this cool segment of a cold frontal passage near the Prairie State Power plant in Marissa, IL on 25 October 2012.

Time Lapse of Convection from a Plane

Neat perspective of thunderstorm growth. Convection appears to be generated by a flanking line or boundary.

7 August 2010 Minnesota Tornado

The late Andy Gabrielson captured this summer tornado in western Minnesota.  The video sequence illustrates a near perfect view of tornadogenesis.

13 June 2012 New Mexico Storms

This lapse features High Plains convection, rolling off the Sangre de Cristos.  The latter part of the video shows a beautiful transient supercell near Mosquero, NM in evening light.

17 June 2012 DeKalb Shelf Blob

A short lapse sequence of the poleward end of a shelf cloud as it scraped the far southern sections of DeKalb during twilight on 17 June 2012.

18 July 2012 DeKalb Whale's Mouth

An animated gif illustrating a whale's mouth. Shot on the north side of Sycamore as a convective cluster roared south.

August 2012 DeKalb Convection

Run-of-the-mill convection in DeKalb, IL on 20 August 2012.

Telluride, CO Lenticulars

I shot these lapse segments along sr-145 just south of Telluride, CO during October 2012. The lapses reveal standing waves and intermittent lenticular formations due to strong southwesterly flow interacting with the San Juans.

 

New Zealand Weather Lapse

A beautiful compilation of weather segments ... from fog, to lenticular, to stratus, to sunsets ... it's all memorizing.

New Zealand Lenticular

One of the more amazing lenticular shots you'll ever witness.

19 June 2011 Kansas Supercell

Chaser Scott Currens captured this nice lapse of a supercell and attendant funnel near White City, KS.  Amazing rotation and structure!

Mt. Rainier Lenticulars

A few lapses illustrating altocumulus lenticularis induced by the Pacific Northwest's Mt. Rainier. For a thorough explanation of these clouds and affiliated weather, please examine MetEd's Mountain Waves and Downslope Windstorms COMET module.

Arizona Microbursts

Sunset rainshafts and probable microbursts over an Arizona desert landscape. 

Asperatus Clouds

In these two videos, Jim LaDue documents asperatus clouds, the "newest" cloud classification. The first is an example of altostratus asperatus, which occurred on 20 April 2011 in Oklahoma. The second is an example of altocumulus apseratus, which occurred on 15 November 2010. Make sure you "up" the resolution to HD.

Mesoscale Accident

Jim LaDue provides an interesting perspective to the 29 May 2012 tornado event northwest of Oklahoma City. As he states: "Meteorologists often refer to a mesoscale accident in the context that tornadoes can occur even when the environment surrounding the storm is unfavorable for their occurrence. On 2012 May 29, this is what happened when a gust front from a left-moving supercell to the south collided with a right-moving supercell dropping southeast from Kingfisher, OK. The result was tornado genesis. This video shows the base of the right-moving supercell start to rapidly rotate and start to wrap precipitation around the center. The tornado revealed itself just after the end of this video."  My blog entry on this event is here.

 

Norman Microbursts

Jim LaDue captured this high-based supercell dropping microbursts near Norman, OK on 14 June 2011.

French Tornadic Supercell

Unbelievable lapse featuring supercell formation and tornadogensis with a beautiful foreground.

Alsace Storms

I believe my translation of this lapse description indicates this is a series of captures near Alsace, France. Cool representation of a variety of organized and unorganized convection.

Shelf Engulfs City

Neat representation of a shelf cloud engulfing a city. Date and location information unknown.

March 2012 Oklahoma Supercell

Zac Flamig captured this cool lapse of a western Oklahoma supercell on 18 March 2012.

Texas Convection

Beautiful convection with anvil formation.

Hector the Convector

A lengthy lapse of the infamous "Hector" thunderstorm that is a semi-permanent convective feature during the northern Australia warm season.

Phoenix Haboob

Short clip illustrating a haboob in Phoenix, AZ. Date unknown.

French Thunderstorm

This lapse is a beautiful representation of buoyancy processes. Captured near Lot-et-Garonne, France on 18 June 2007.

Coastal Shelf Cloud

Nice time-lapse illustrating a shelf cloud moving toward a coastline. No date/location information was provided by the photographer. We do learn that the GoPro that was used to make the lapse was knocked off its perch by the wind and destroyed. Note, there is a bit of loud music at the end.

French Supercell

Beautiful lapse segment of a supercell near Ecrainville, France on 16 July 2009.

"Fog Lapse"

The fog almost seems to "breath" in this relaxing lapse, which was constructed from segments captured near Breitenbush Hot Springs in Oregon.

"Twilight Magic"

A beautiful lapse illustrating many stunning cloudscapes.

Fog from Above

A cool look at fog/stratus from above. No date or location information was provided by the videographer.

Italian Waterspout

A very cool lapse of a waterspout off the coast of Genova, Italy on 12 February 2012.

24 July 2012 Derecho

An animated gif and longer lapse of a shelf cloud associated with the early-morning passage of a derecho-producing convective system at NIU on 24 July 2012. I also created two other animated gifs of the shelf and whale's mouth associated with this event. Additional details on my storm chase blog.

7 November 2011 southwest OK Supercell/Tornadoes

Justin Terveen compiled this cool, storm-scale structure filled lapse of a supercell and tornadoes in southwest OK on 7 November 2011.

Colorado Roll Cloud

This short sequence by John Huntington illustrates a neat roll cloud bear Brush, CO on 8 August 2010. Roll clouds are a type of arcus cloud, and are differentiated from a shelf cloud because a roll cloud is detached from the base of the thunderstorm.

CG Lightning caught by High-speed Camera

Using a high-speed camera, storm chaser Tim Samaras snagged this very cool CG bolt on 10 July 2011.

Positive CG Lightning

Tom Warner captured this positive cloud-to-ground lightning flash with a high-speed camera -- recorded at 7,207 images per second! As he states: "Weak positive leader branches decay and become cutoff as they propagate downward from the cloud. Fast recoil leaders develop along the decayed branches in an attempt to reionize the branches. The downward positive leader eventually connects with the ground forming a bright return stroke." A royalty-free license of this video can be obtained at WeatherVideoHD.TV

June 2012 Waldo Canyon Fire

A remarkable 5-day lapse that tells the horrific story of the Waldo Canyon Fire near Colorado Springs, CO.

24 March 2012 Chicago Marine Layer Fog

Cool lapse of fog near Solider Field, complete with waves embedded in the marine layer.

17 October 2012 NIU Hole-punch Cloud

The NIU webcam system captured a hole-punch cloud as it formed and moved east on this beautiful October day. Hole punch appears at 30 sec mark. For a scientific explanation of these events, check out this BAMS article.

Northeast U.S. Blizzard 2013 Lapses

A blizzard slammed the Northeast U.S. on 8-9 February 2013. The event is nicely summarized in Jeff Master's blog. A satellite perspective is available from CIMSS. A few of the many unique lapses from the event ...

New Haven, CT traffic/snow lapse

   

2012 NIU Skylapse

This is a "best of" movie of time-lapse clips caught by the NIU webcam system from May 2012-January 2013. The movie is a one-hour collection of 173 clips illustrating skyscapes of contrails, deep convection, shelf clouds, stratus of all types, gravity waves, outflow boundaries, frontal passages, and everything in between (e.g., a hot air balloon passage, helicopters that look like UFOs hovering over a KDKB aircraft crash site, an outdoor inflatable for ROTC folks, and occasional visitors like birds and bugs). The webcam system captures images (1280x720) every 10 seconds from each of our perspectives (east, north, and west); that's about 3-4 GB of images a day! The images are then compiled and sped up 20x.

6 May 2007 Iowa Gravity Wave

A very cool lapse of undular bore/gravity wave action from the Tama, Iowa KCCI-TV webcam on 6 May 2007.  For a more technical assessment of this event, check out this journal article.

18 July 2012 Wadena, SK Supercell and Tornadoes

NIU alumnus and good friend, Victor Gensini, has a rather long lapse created from a number of sequences of a Saskatchewan supercell and attendant tornadoes. His blog post detailing this day is here.

20 June 2010 Wyoming LP Supercell

Chaser Michael Carlson captured this short sequence revealing a Wyoming LP supercell in full glory.

9 September 2010 Nebraska LP Supercell

Colorado chaser Eric Treece illustrates amazing LP supercell structure in this short lapse.

17 July 2009 Panhandle Supercell

Once again, Roger Hill captures the beauty of the atmosphere in this lapse of a somewhat distant supercell.

"All Alone in the Night" - Another ISS Lapse

David Peterson compiled this series of ISS sequences. Another fine illustration of the peace and beauty of earth from afar.

Oklahoma Pyrocumulus

Jim LaDue captured this amazing time-lapse sequence of pyrocumulus on 3 August 2012 near Norman, OK. Jim has a great blog post describing the meteorology and character of the event here.

14 April 2012 Crawford, KS Tornado

A very neat lapse of the rearside of a mesocyclone and attendant tornado -- created using a GoPro camera. John Peters has a similar perspective here.

Slow Motion Lightning

Tom Warner of ZT Research has documented lightning "anatomy" using photographic equipment that can record up to 100,000 framers per second. The video below is an excellent teaching source, revealing the stepped leader in all its glory.

Additional videos may be found on his website here. Animated gifs of similar perspectives may be found on this NWS site. Also, NASA has the same video as above with a bit of context.

"Island in the Sky" - La Palma, Canary Islands

Christoph Malin created one of the better time-lapse movies you'll see. This one has amazing stratus cloudscapes that reveals a "breathing" atmosphere.

Island in the Sky from Christoph Malin on Vimeo.

Valentine, NE Supercell

Roger Hill captured this stunning lapse of a huge supercell that traversed the SD-NE border on 13 July 2009.

Texas Supercell

Roger Hill captured this beautiful supercell in the Texas Panhandle 18 July 2009.

Campo Tornado

Janek Zimmer captured this amazing lapse near the infamous 31 May 2010 Campo, CO tornado.

Topeka Supercell

On 21 May 2011, storm chaser Chad Cowan documented this extremely photogenic supercell in northeast Kansas. My perspective of this storm is available here.

17 July 2010 Tornadofest

Chaser friend Skip Talbot created this lapse ... probably my favorite storm lapse to date. This one really hurts ... since I busted (in relative terms) near Storm Lake, IA. A remarkable lapse that illustrates many, many storm-scale features -- a must show for any mesoscale course. The "heat" ramps up about 3:45 pm. Hold on to your chair!

Haboob!

Mike Olbinski captured this haboob on 5 July 2011.



For another perspective of a haboob, check out this youtube.

The Arizona Monsoon in Time-lapse

Mike Olbinski provides this beautiful set of late summer 2012 'zona monsoon skyscapes.
The Arizona Monsoon in Timelapse (2012) from Mike Olbinski on Vimeo.

"The Unseen Sea" - Beautiful Bay Area Lapse

Simon Christen created this amazing -- one of my favorite! -- lapses that illustrates the beauty of the marine layer that hugs the Bay Area. The fluid nature of the atmosphere really shines in this lapse.

"The City Limits" - Artistic Lapse of Urban Cores

Dominic provides a beautiful time-lapse view of the modern urban core. While not cloudscape or weather-lapse heavy, Chicago is included for us Illinois folks.


The City Limits from Dominic on Vimeo. Dominic also has this interesting perspective to the "rise of Europe.

"The Mountain" - Lapse from El Teide, Spain

A remarkably beautiful time lapse from TSO Photography. Filmed between 4th and 11th April 2011 at El Teide -- Spain´s highest mountain at 3718 m. Includes amazing stratus star scenes and cloudscapes.

"Earth" - an ISS Lapse

Michael Konig created this lapse from sequences of photographs taken by the crew of the expeditions 28 and 29 onboard the International Space Station from August to October, 2011. Shot at approximately 350 km AGL.
Earth from Michael König on Vimeo.

Eyjafjallajökull Volcano, Iceland

Sean Stiegemeire provides this beautiful lapse of that unpronounceable volcano in Iceland. Images from 1-2 May 2010.