It’s pretty rare when the winds don’t blow in Oklahoma. We had just a very light breeze from the NNE when I took this shot of the Oklahoma River Recreation Area. The almost glassy surface is such a rare phenomena I just had to capture it.
This is one of my favorite prayer chapels (below). It’s the same idea as a glider or porch swing, but built for much larger numbers. Provided there is no major vandalism, it should last quite awhile. I usually have it to myself when I ride by, and it allows me to pray out loud.
We are still in the same weather pattern (below) as the first photo, where the winds are unusually light. Thus, here on the North Canadian River way out by Jones, OK it’s rather still and presents that same glassy surface. It’s such a rare condition that it warrants saving.
Normally any storms NE of us would not be a threat. However, on the day I shot this image (below) at Barnes Park, this stuff was actually coming toward us. It fell apart before it could get organized enough to rain, but no one could have been sure of that from the looks of it. This part of the Veterans’ Memorial at Barnes Park, and that DC-3 was likely built at the Douglas Plant that was eventually turned into Tinker AFB.
This (below) is the same clouds as the previous image roughly 45 minutes later. You can see they are dispersing. This time the foreground is our Senior Center, and over the fence is some apartments I once lived in. The maintenance was awful, so we couldn’t wait to move out of that place.
Taken from my current front yard (below), this is a batch of storms forming off in the distance. The clouds did eventually stretch out over our heads, but nothing happened here. They did dump some rain and lightning, as well, but over the next county east of us.
Would love to have a front-row seat for a good storm cloud-gatherin’. As you know, I don’t live in the right geographic region to see that, though there are a few places I could probably go to see it. I’d have to be blessed with coincidence, though. I don’t really want to camp out on a tall hilltop until something happens.
It’s quite an experience when the really big stuff rolls in. First comes an abrupt change of wind direction and temperature. Meanwhile, you see the clouds swelling upward into the atmosphere. You keep checking every few minutes as they shoot up miles into the upper layers. Then you start to smell the presence of rainfall long before it actually hits. As long as it’s not already raining, you get to watch as the 5+ miles high (measured from it’s own bottom to top) cloud formation drifts your way.