Clouds and Sky

Clouds & Sky Photos

One of the things we love about our location is the wide expanse of sky we can see and the fantastic images that Mother Nature is continually "painting" on this canvas.

Here are a few of my favorite sky and cloud photographs. I always keep a camera handy, so rest assured I will be adding more images to this file!

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	Catalina Mountains at Sunset Looking east from our back yard. July, 2002. The lighting on the mountains is constantly changing, but the prettiest time to view the Catalinas from our house is usually late in the day.
Circular Cloud Motion Looking south toward the Tucson mountains. This was taken about 6:00 P.M. If this were in Ohio, I'd be thinking tornado.
	Rain Shaft This is the same view, about 20 minutes later. Just your garden variety heavy desert downpour.
Desert Sunset Looking South again. This was actually taken about 15 minutes after the sun dropped below the horizon. When there are clouds in the sky, it pays to check the view well after the sun goes down, as that is when the colors are often at their peak.
	Looking Northwest In the Summer, the sun sets well to the north of our view from the back of the house. This was taken from the front yard. about 10 minutes after sunset.
Looking South This is a good example of the lighting on the higher level clouds after sunset. The lower clouds are shadowed by the Earth, while the higher clouds, probably 40-50 miles away, are still in the sunlight.
	Thunderstorm Building Over the Tucsons This is a typical late afternoon buildup that eventually produced heavy rain, with lots of air-to-ground lightning. The storm is about 25-30 miles from us. We were in sunlight the entire time and never saw a drop of rain.
Decaying Storm This is the same storm, right at dusk. High level winds are really pushing around the cloud tops. This cell still produced some heavy rain southwest of the city before it fully dissipated.
	Sonoran Desert Sunset This was taken near Saguaro National Park - West, about 5 minutes after the sun dropped below the horizon. It's the photo that I used for the hagedon.net website banner
Late Afternoon Shadows No clouds here, but the relatively long distances to the horizon often produces really long shadows. This was taken from our clubhouse, looking west.
	Radiance Looking northwest from the front of the house, about 10 minutes after "sunset."
Evening Thunderstorm This thunderstorm, about 25 miles to our east and over the Catalina mountains, produced continuous lightning for well over an hour. At our house the sky was clear and the stars were out