Dramatic Squall Line Storm on June 4th, 2019

I cannot remember what I was doing the evening of June 4th, but I heard the County dispatch a severe thunderstorm warning for a storm containing possible hail, dangerous lightning, and possible wind gusts up to 60 mph…so after notifying Mom to prepare for a storm approaching, I drove out to the FF Bridge over I-44 once again to film it. This one was much more serious looking, coming in dark and dramatic…this view to the northwest and over toward Mom`s house as well, but still to the north a bit…

…and the central body of the storm over I-44 looking to the west….

…and a minute later, the central body to the trailing southern edge poised over the town of Bourbon…..a Shelf Cloud starting to take visible shape….

…the National Weather Service has this to say about Shelf Clouds…” A shelf cloud is a low-hanging, well-defined, wedge-shaped formation that occurs along the leading edge of a gust front in a thunderstorm. Shelf clouds most often form just ahead of intense lines of thunderstorms…” A Gust Front means wind coming in, in front of the storm, with the Squall Line…

…from a photographer`s standpoint, these are some dramatic clouds to watch and capture on film, but you do have to stay aware of your surroundings, the wind can pick up and get quite gusty with them, gusty enough to move things, push things over, create hazards of arcing electrical wires, knock signs down…and the look of these clouds can change in a matter of minutes and even seconds when they start to move. The time difference between the photo above this paragraph and the next photo was one minute and you can tell that this squall line is not only forming up but moving as well…

…I decided to drive back toward town in case the wind really picked up and this storm turned more serious, to be closer to home and my basement…I had also left Onyx at home this time and wanted to be able to get back quick if needed to get him sheltered…it did start moving but just in a dramatic way and I pulled into the business parking lot of Bill Little and drove over to the south end of his parking lot as it came in….