Storm From The Sky

Flying south past a storm somewhere over South Carolina or Georgia. Looking east.

I took the picture above with my iPhone camera on the pano setting.

 The top of the storm is somewhat obscured but there was plenty of definition in the lower part.

After the Spring Rain

It was a great Sunday to take a closer look after the rain. 

Interesting to see how the surface of the leaves interacted with the water. Some were completely covered with drops and others had just a few.  

Natural Sand Fence

While spending time on sand dunes on the Outer Banks of North Carolina I noticed an obvious example of a wind break or a natural sand fence. 

The grass slows the wind allowing the finer grains of sand to settle on the leeward side of the plant. 
You can think of it as nature's own sand fence. Sand fences are used to manage where sand is deposited, keeping it out of areas like roads or keeping it in areas like beaches to help control erosion. 

SEA to ATL

This is a picture I took flying back to Atlanta from Seattle. It shows a contrail from a plane during a December sunset.



This was a very unique situation where I was able to see a contrail from three sides. Usually when most people see contrails it is from the ground looking up. In this case I saw it as our plane approached it and then from behind and finally from the other side... by the time I got my camera ready we were flying away from it.



Same flight just outside of Seattle and just above the low clouds surrounding the city and Mt. Rainier.



You can see the snow blowing off the top of the mountain with the stronger winds at higher elevation.



This is a picture I took a couple days before flying back to Atlanta. The Argosy coming back to the Kirkland dock.

Fall in Atlanta

Here are some fall pictures I took while on a little nature walk. Incidentally the trail head is only about one hundred yards away from work. The leaves change very slowly, so the fall season is a slow process. I’m told spring is similar in that trees and flowers blossom at varying rates making the season feel longer.



So far, the wildlife I have encountered has been reserved to birds and insects both of which I saw on this walk.




The Cardinal adds some vibrant color to an already active scene.




This is the Chattahoochee river. It was definitely muddy when I first started working during the last week in September when record rain pounded Atlanta. On this day, it had me dreaming of a nice summer day along the banks.

Heat Wave

We have had ten days in a row of above normal temperatures. This includes six days at 90 or warmer along with the all time record at Sea-Tac last Wednesday of 103.

The bright spot to the heat wave has to be the sunsets. I took this picture last week but with the smoke from recent fires on the Olympic Peninsula the sunsets have continued to impress.




This picture is from the hottest day every recorded at Sea-Tac. I was working that day and it was amazing to walk out from the air conditioned weather center on to the roof garden and feel the contrast. It was like a whole different world.



At the same time we had thunderstorms building over the Cascades as seen from the roof garden looking over Dexter Avenue.

Sound to San Juans

Now that the temperatures are soaring across the northwest I am dreaming of being back on the water. I spent some time on the water with my folks during my weekend. On Wednesday they picked me up after work on Lake Union, went through the locks and stayed at Shilshole Marina. It was nice to watch the sunset over the Olympics on a warm evening.




The next night we stayed in Port Townsend and then headed for Friday Harbor on Friday morning. We ran into some pretty thick fog crossing the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Visibility ranged from about a mile to 100 feet at times. The fog was pretty thick but shallow. There was fog all around but we had blue sky overhead, it was like being in an arena.





It was warm Saturday morning in Friday Harbor as the sun rose on the eastern sky just north of Mt. Baker.



I had to work that night so I flew back on Kenmore Air and took this shot looking back over Shaw Island below and San Juan Island to on the left. The day already had a tropical feel and the clouds in the sky reminded me of the moisture in the atmosphere that would eventually help feed that evening's thunderstorms.