Summer Storm - Red Deer County, Alberta, Canada

Jani-Lee
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Summer Storm - Red Deer County, Alberta, Canada
Summer Storm - Red Deer County, Alberta, Canada

We took a 13 hour drive down one of the Forestry Roads bordering the Rocky Mountains yesterday. A very satisfying day with many photo opportunities! We saw so many Hawks, 3 Turkey Vultures, 5 Pelicans and a Mama Osprey with her chick; over a 100 wild horses - not to mention the magnificent scenery!
Driving home, we watched the sky changing from puffy, softly floating cotton candy clouds, to darkening grey clouds and then threatening skies. We had a superb vantage point with travelling down all the endless open country side that gave us the best view of the changing sky. We stopped one last time on a gravel road to let the dogs stretch their legs for the last few hours till we got home. I got out of the truck and looked at the cloud that I had been keeping my eye on for quite some time. It metamorphosed before our eyes as our dogs pranced around the field. The most scary part was not the swirling blackness but the aqua coloured blue that formed a ribbon dancing in amongst the cloud. The last time I saw this colour of blue in the sky was our devastating tornado, dubbed Black Friday 34 years ago on July 30, 1987. Twenty-seven people tragically perished.
Apparently, there were alerts put out for the Red Deer area but we were off the grid for hours in the bush and had no cell coverage.
We watched this cloud as it swiftly moved right over on top of us and I have to say that I felt like I was in the movie Twister. The speed at which everything began to happen is mind blowing. The temperature dropped 10 degrees; the wind came up with a vengeance; the thunder echoed from the blackness and the lightening flared across the sky.
It was nothing short of excilerating! As the Genie was let loose out of the bottle, we were suddenly reminded of our mortality. We quickly scooted the pups back into the truck and as we shut the doors we were assaulted with large balls of hail. Our new truck! OMG!
I drove like a madwomen trying to skirt the anger of the storm.
Two hours later we were back at home completely drained. The evening sky was calm and showed no evidence of what we had gone through. How quickly life can change!
After a glass of wine, I crossed something off of my Bucket List - Becoming a storm Chaser. NOT HAPPENING!

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Taken on: July 16, 2022
Tags: Everybody's photos tagged with funnel funnel Everybody's photos tagged with thunderstorms thunderstorms Everybody's photos tagged with black sky black sky more » Everybody's photos tagged with storm storm « less
Sets appears in:   • Photos With A Story   
Groups appears in:   • Landscape photography    • CSSS: Storms - Extreme Weather on Planet Earth    more » • CSSS: Storms - There Be A Storm A Brewin!    • Clouds, Storms, Sunsets & Sunrises    • CSSS: Storms - Canada's Storms & Thunderstorms    • Landscape Beauty !    • CSSS: Storms - S T O R M S C A P E S    • Landscapes Only    • CSSS: Earth - Panoramics (CSSS Required)    « less
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel SL2, f/11.0, 1/30 sec, 17mm, ISO 640 (more info) (hide info)
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel SL2
Lens: Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM
Aperture: f/11.0
Exposure Time: 0.033 sec (1/30)
Focal Length: 17mm
ISO: 640
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program: Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode: Auto
Metering Mode: Partial
White Balance: Auto
Color Space: sRGB
Software: Luminar 4 Extension
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