Strange Storm

There was a peculiar storm that occurred last night. Early in the evening before the sun set you could see an arched shadow that appeared from the top of the approaching storm and continued all the way to the other horizon, roughly west to east.

Later after the sun set, the storm neared you could see the same type of perfect arc, from horizon to horizon. Again west to east, only this time, formed in the clouds themselves. When the arc was just overhead, the storm pounded us. Lightning bolts every second until it passed, about 40 minutes. The arc appeared within normal puffy swirling storm clouds.

It's difficult to describe. If you took a photo of an approaching storm and edited it with a smudge brush, making an arc across the front, from horizon to horizon you would have a good idea of what I saw.

I've never seen anything like this before and I'm somewhat of a storm watcher/sky watcher. Has anyone else seen anything like this before?

well, I am guessing you were in around the area of Western Iowa/Eastern Nebraska when you saw this. I saw one just like it last night while fishing. A big thunderhead at one end and a smooth looking cloud all the way across the horizon attaching to another thunderhead. I have never seen anything like it and it was simply amazing looking. The span on this formation had to be hundreds of miles. I took a few pictures and will try to post them tomorrow.

I posted this but it didnt seem to ever show up, here is my reply "again":

well, I am guessing you were in around the area of Western Iowa/Eastern Nebraska when you saw this. I saw one just like it last night while fishing. A big thunderhead at one end and a smooth looking cloud all the way across the horizon attaching to another thunderhead. I have never seen anything like it and it was simply amazing looking. The span on this formation had to be hundreds of miles. I took a few pictures and will try to post them tomorrow.

reply to post by ringing


Actually no, I am about six or seven hundred miles southeast of there. It was amazing to see. My wife and I both saw it and neither of us had seen it before. It was also probably one of the most lightning filled thunderstorms I've ever seen.

I'm looking forward to seeing the pictures, I though about taking some myself but my camera sucks at taking pictures in poor light.

ok, I just got the images off of my camera, I have shots of the 2 storms but none really of the "connecting" long smooth formation, I can post the images but I dont have any of the connecting part, so it would'nt show much in regards to the type of formation we saw..

reply to post by ringing


I found this, it's not the same as what I saw, but it's a very good picture.

storm

that link was a tornado that happened about 50 miles from my home. I was out in the storms that made the one in the link.