Time-Lapse GIFs Show Earth Transform Over 25 Years

While these animated gifs offer a terrestrial view, they illustrate the power of the time-lapse technique. Create your own lapse via Google Earth Engine. An overview and history of the project may be found at this Time.com link.

The expanding human fingerprint. Gif animation courtesy of Time.com/Google/Popsci. 

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.