SWF–T-storm and Rainbow Grand Canyon

Last Sunday afternoon the biggest storm I’ve ever seen moved across the Grand Canyon.

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SWF – Storm watching at Grand Canyon

7:02pm

The sky changes rapidly as storms move across the South Rim..(read more)

My World Tuesday - Storm Watching at Grand Canyon National Park

Better enlarge these to get the full effect.

Southeast to southwest view of the South Rim from Cape Royal
Today I went out on the Walhalla Plateau and gave a geology talk at Cape Royal while keeping an eye on the sky. This storm swept across the South Rim from west to east in a show of thunder and lightning for over an hour. I’ll bet the temperature dropped at least 10-15 degrees F as the wind increased. I was so excited! The energy was high, lots of negative ions. Yet on the North Rim, we felt no rain. I took over 50 photos trying to catch lightning, yet it’s so quick and I’m so slow. I lost count of how many strikes. One hit the wall of the canyon with a flash of fire.

Then I tried a minuet of video.

One frame caught lightning (my first capture of it) with Wotan’s Throne in foreground
Before leaving the Cape I warned visitors, “do not to be the tallest thing standing on this rocky promontory holding the metal rail if the storm comes north. Get up that quarter mile trail as fast as you can and into your vehicles.”

View southeast with Sky Island in foreground from Walhalla overlook
I didn’t want to leave. Yet at Walhalla overlook where I gave an archeology talk another storm was coming in from the north. I felt only 10 drops of rain while watching this veil quickly sweep to the southeast.

View northeast and east from Point Imperial
Again, I didn’t want to leave. But after lunch I went to rove at Point Imperial where I always enjoy the vast distant views. I was greeted by another storm coming from the north along with patches of sun reflecting off the Vermillion Cliffs to the left and Echo Cliffs to the right.

Wow, what a day! Sure beats yesterday which I vented about on the previous post.

So that’s my exciting world today. To see more of life around the world, or to share your own,

go to My World Tuesday by clicking here.

Thank you all for your concern. I did have a second full bottle of propane to switch to. The fridge hasn’t been cooling for a week. It just does that when the temperatures rise, when it cools down outside it usually starts works again. It is an original unit in a 1977 RV. Did it all matter today? No.