Wild Wyoming cloud wows weatherwatchers

I think you mean to say horizontally? Unless the clouds were on top of one another...

I'd be hauling my ... away.

But a beautiful sight when safely sat behind your screen.

Mother Nature... the old lass did it again.

a reply to: semperfortis

Thats bizarre

Here is an amazing supercell in Texas

Mother Nature is crazy beautiful...wished I could have seen that with my own eyes. Once in a lifetime opportunity I think, but thanks for sharing. I'll have to accept the pic Super cool!

That is one incredible image. Did it drop any funnel clouds? It sure looks like it was real ready to do that.

It must have scared the hell out of anyone near it and I hope they were all safe.

a reply to: semperfortis Wow, so cool. Because of military affiliations, I have lived all over the country and even over seas, but I have to say, while living in Wyoming, I saw some of the most beautiful and unusual clouds ever! I lived outside of Cody, Wyoming in a small town called Waipiti , ( not very far from the entrance to Yellowstone Park), and I witnessed many unusual cloud formations...especially Lenticular clouds, (the ones that look like ufos). I have photos but can't seem to get the posting of same to work for some reason.

Wyoming has some of the most beautiful sunsets and cloud formations ever and starry night skies....Big Sky country for sure. I can see why they call it that!

a reply to: semperfortis

Very cool pic, but I think I'd be panicking if I was close enough to take that pic! Tornadoes are way too unpredictable. I got as close as I ever want to when one ran through town and jumped just before my neighborhood. Debris in the yard and driveway was bad enough.

a reply to: shrevegal

Montana is called big sky country. Same difference though.

Powerful display of Mother Nature. I have seen some crazy weather while traveling up in Idaho on Snowboard trips as well. ~$heopleNation

a reply to: semperfortis

Looks like a really defined Mesocyclone. A massive rotating storm basically forced upward and cyclonic (spinning counter clockwise) by wind shear from the west and south, as well as massive amounts of rising warm air into a colder air mass.

However Wyoming is pretty far west its possible the storm was quite slow moving which allowed it to sort of spool up like that as it continued to proliferate into a stronger super-cell thunderstorm. A lot more cool dry Canadian air available closer to Colorado, but they do get tornadoes over there every once and a while.

Proximity to mountains could have an effect as well.

originally posted by: semperfortis

That image looks a bit HDR.
I'm not saying it's fictional , just that it looks tweaked.

originally posted by: engvbany

originally posted by: semperfortis

That image looks a bit HDR.
I'm not saying it's fictional , just that it looks tweaked.

I do have to agree with the High Dynamic Range assessment. Either that or it was taken with a VERY expensive camera. Even still, I would imagine you would have to tweak it in Photomatix or something to get the lights and darks to not wash out.