Power.

Project365 Blog: Day 5 - January 5

Title: Power

Commentary: Chasing thunderstorms was one of the big catalysts that made me go back to school for a degree in Meteorology.

The awesome power of a thunderstorm is simply the atmosphere's way of maintaining balance at a local level. The atmosphere wants to be in balance -- just the right combination of temperature, dewpoint, pressure, wind, etc. But the atmosphere is a liquid, and it's ever-changing, ever-evolving. Sometimes things get out of whack. Dewpoint and temperature differences can cause great instability; other dynamics such as wind speeds and directions changing with height add fuel to that fire. A spark, or trigger comes along in the form of the sea-breeze boundary, or a front, or just instability itself, and the puffy cumulus clouds of a hot summer's afternoon become towering, menacing, incredible cumulonimbus clouds. This image shows a bit of the flanking line, the updraft, and mammatus clouds as well. This was a good thunderstorm. From July 13, 2020.