Montana storm (Bozeman: transplants, house, tornado)

[rangerider]

One of my pet peeves is how the weather bureau hangs a 'severe' tag on storms that barely settle the dust, and winter storm warnings on storms that only just qualify for normal winter weather. I have trucked regionally in the Montana/Idaho/Wyoming country for years, and only about 5 times out of 100 do the forecasts ever amount to anything even close.

About two weeks ago I was heading home from work when this one blew up, and is one of the few clouds I have seen here that qualified as a thunderstorm. It had good structure and obviously contained some hail. There were two waves of rain behind it, and reminded me of some of the weather we had where I grew up, right in the middle of tornado alley. I stopped on my bike on the hill above my house and took a few and then hightailed it down to the place and took some more. Ever since I was a little kid I have been drawn to wild weather - my mom and dad used to drag me back to the farmhouse from all points of the compass when winter and summer storms would blow in. Nothing I like better than being in the middle of a good t-storm or blizzard.

These are a few of the best shots I got, hope you enjoy them...









I didn't do much editing on these, have hopes of making prints out of the larger versions at some point. My camera is just a pocket Pentax with 6.2 MPs so anything very big washes out fast. I converted to the digital age a year ago and am in love - just need a better understanding of PhotoShop and a digital SLR style camera with a bit more capability.

[Kristynwy]

Great pics! Thanks for sharing them with us!

[tailg8r22]

Awesome pictures! Thanks for sharing. If you don't mind sharing...around what town do you live in? It looks beautiful.

[grizzfan]

Thanks!

[rangerider]

Originally Posted by tailg8r22

Awesome pictures! Thanks for sharing. If you don't mind sharing...around what town do you live in? It looks beautiful.

I'm out west of Bozeman about 30 miles or so.

[HighPlainsDrifter73]

Excellent pics. I love storms too.

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by rangerider

One of my pet peeves is how the weather bureau hangs a 'severe' tag on storms that barely settle the dust, and winter storm warnings on storms that only just qualify for normal winter weather.
[snippola]
Ever since I was a little kid I have been drawn to wild weather - my mom and dad used to drag me back to the farmhouse from all points of the compass when winter and summer storms would blow in. Nothing I like better than being in the middle of a good t-storm or blizzard.

Ooooh, those are nice... I also love the long golden fields... where exactly are you?

I love a good thunderstorm. When I was a kid I'd stay up late watching the lightning, and I still love to watch it, and listen to the thunder, and feel the wind trying to carry me away. When we had our 84mph blow here a few years back (tornado passed half a mile from me) I had to go out and see how far I could lean into the wind without falling down

I think the "severe weather" warnings for ordinary routine storms are another byproduct of a 3rd generation that grew up away from the farm (which now means most city folk, and nearly all the yuppie transplants to MT), and who've never had to actually work outdoors, let alone work outdoors in every sort of weather like it or not. They just don't realise it's nothing unusual.

I have to laugh at what they call a "flood" in SoCal. No, that's just a damp spot. A real flood is 100 miles wide and eats whole towns!!

[ElkHunter]

Originally Posted by Reziac

Ooooh, those are nice... I also love the long golden fields... where exactly are you?

I love a good thunderstorm. When I was a kid I'd stay up late watching the lightning, and I still love to watch it, and listen to the thunder, and feel the wind trying to carry me away. When we had our 84mph blow here a few years back (tornado passed half a mile from me) I had to go out and see how far I could lean into the wind without falling down

I think the "severe weather" warnings for ordinary routine storms are another byproduct of a 3rd generation that grew up away from the farm (which now means most city folk, and nearly all the yuppie transplants to MT), and who've never had to actually work outdoors, let alone work outdoors in every sort of weather like it or not. They just don't realise it's nothing unusual.

I have to laugh at what they call a "flood" in SoCal. No, that's just a damp spot. A real flood is 100 miles wide and eats whole towns!!

You hit it pretty close. The good old California "Sue Happy". Now days, if the weather man doesn't tell you to within an 1/8 inch of how big the hail is going to be, they get sued. We had a gust of 40 and the weatherman said winds as high as 30. Gotta sue them for false reporting.

It's the same with snow. Snow advisory for I-90. Expect heavy snows. I'd run up to Forseith and back and there wasn't any snow on the road. But they were making sure, just in case.

They also shut down the roads if visibility gets under a half mile. Huh????? Or there is more then an inch of snow on the highway, it's closed. Huh???? But they do it now so they don't **** off the implants that aren't used to it.

For those of you that moved to Montana, the first year, these were probably good warnings. But after a couple of years, they seem stupid, and are stupid.

[jmmcnally]

Those are great pictures! Reminds me of some of the storms we have here in Texas!

[seven of nine]

I lived in San Antonio for a couple of years and yes the storms there are pretty but up on the high-line, the color is different and the light diffuses through the clouds and makes for some spectacular color, elevation difference? They are really something. Yea, I only get a little nervous if it is dark, then I am listening for the "train"