Cloudburst and Rainbow on August 7th, 2018

I was driving back from Mom`s house the evening of August 7th, after taking her supper and visiting with her as I have done every day since her release from the hospital earlier this year…as I turned on to the North Service Road just west of Sullivan, I spotted what appeared to be a cloudburst ahead in the skies….

 

 

I had always heard of them, but had never seen one up close like this….sure was neat to see…and when I stopped up on the Hwy FF Bridge over I-44 to shoot some more photos of it, I noticed there was a rainbow forming up under the cloudburst as well….

 

…and that seemed very unusual to me…I had never heard of such a thing nor seen anything like it, either…

…so I decided to drive close to town to see if it became more visible…as I approached Thomure Lumber, it became very bright and visible underneath the cloudburst !! 

…and as I sat there and watched, it appeared that a second rainbow was trying to form on the other side of the cloudburst as well….two rainbows under this cloud….I wonder what the chances are of that….

…here is a video I shot as well…the rainbow doesn`t show up as well as the photos….

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July Storms and Car Fire

I drove up to Cuba on the 14th of July to have some great BBQ for supper at Missouri Hick Restaurant…the Crawford County Fair was going on just east of MO Hick at the Cuba Fairgrounds and there was rain in the air as I came out after supper….I headed for home, east on the South Service Road and drove up the Hwy UU Overpass to get on eastbound I-44, and noticed a thunderstorm back behind me to the west and now over Cuba….I stopped to photograph it and shot some video as well…

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…it appeared to be moving at a pretty good clip, so I decided to stay out ahead of it and photograph it along the way, was hoping it would make it to Sullivan and bring us some much needed rain too. I left the interstate at Bourbon and photographed it from the Hwy J Bridge over 44 about 15 minutes later with the old Bourbon water tower in the photo….

…and then I stopped at Crawford Electric to shoot some more video and photos of it…it seemed to be gathering force as it approached there…

…as I drove thru Leasburg on 44, the rain caught up to me and was coming down in buckets…I drove out of it near Brand Road and didn`t see rain again til after it arrived in Sullivan. As it approached Crawford Electric it appeared to be getting stronger and more dramatic looking skies as well….here is the video I shot there….

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I drove a couple more miles east and stopped on top of the Hwy FF Bridge over 44 to shoot some more photos and video of it as it approached Sullivan….

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…and here is how the other half of the storm looked due south of where I was standing, with what appeared to be a wind cloud up above Hwy FF south of 44….

…and as I drove east on the North Service Road into Sullivan, I stopped across from my Doctor`s office building and photographed that wind cloud south of 44 again…

…and a few minutes later, here it is blowing…literally….through the Sullivan City Park where the ballfields and City Pool are located near my house….

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…and about 30 minutes later, Sullivan Fire Department was kicked out for a vehicle fire located behind the Super 8 Motel, so Onyx and I headed over to photograph it for the paper….on arrival finding Pumper 814 and crew on scene, they had been out on Hwy 185 north clearing some brush from the roadway, on their return to the fire station they heard the dispatch and responded, arriving just ahead of the paid crew in 854. Since it was still raining a bit and windy, I was not able to tell at first that it was a junky car on fire in the edge of the field behind the motel…

Firefighter Beau Kick pulled a preconnect hoseline to attack the fire and positioned himself on the far side of the fire while waiting for Jordan Shortt to charge the line….

Photos are a bit blurry as I was shooting with a low shutter speed due to the dim light, and Beau was moving faster than I was shooting…

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Thunderstorms in Late June

From Mid June to the last part of the month, there were some dramatic looking thunderstorms that rolled through our area…spotted this one rolling in from the northwest on my way out to Mom`s house around 5 pm on the 19th…..

…shortly after leaving Mom`s house an hour later, I drove up the FF Bridge over 44 and photographed it, looking north here….

…and looking back to the northwest here….

…but this cloud to the north really captured my attention and held it for the longest time as a rain squall developed within it, starting to the north of Sullivan and then sweeping through town a little later, bringing rain down in buckets….

…as you can see above, the rain was definitely moving toward Sullivan…while below you can see yet another storm to the west….

…and some video I shot up there as well….

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…luckily, all we had was some pretty good rain out of it, no wind or hail….a few days later, another one rolled through town while I was asleep and I missed out on a neat looking shelf cloud that several people were able to capture some nice images of…

…pretty neat photos for sure and nice clouds too !!