Angry Sky-Tornado Warning - (enlarge)

Last evening from about 5pm till Midnight, we were in a very Severe

Weather Warning. Strong Winds, Severe Thunderstorms, Tornado

Warnings - seek shelter if conditions worsen. It was very scary.

Thankfully we did not have any Tornadoes. A few communities not

too far away experienced ones, but not really bad damage as far as I

know. (any visits or comments welcome, many thanks, Gail)

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That's some angry sky! An impressive shot. I assume you didn't get hit by a tornado. We had a tornado warning last week and I went to the basement. No tornado at my house either.

BTW, this is such a departure for you. I'm so used to seeing the multi layered work you do, which I like, but this is good too.

And, I wanted to mention, if you want to cover up something like the light in the second picture you might try using a soft edged selection to copy part of the image away from what you want to cover and move that new piece on top of the part you want to cover. I do that sometimes and it can be pretty undetectable.

Thank you Chuck. I just got the 24-105 awhile back. I really like that lens. Other than my Macro, I have the Canon EF-S 55-250mm IS but don't always like the results from that. I have tried using the 'Content Aware Move Tool', which I tried with the light here, but the results were not that great. I know if I had of worked more at it, perhaps it may have worked. Thanks for the advice on the technique you use Chuck, I will try it!

 

We did not move to the basement. The fierce looking clouds were moving over us quite quickly, and also swirling round our area. This seems to happen a lot. We really had some strong winds with a sky that appeared that sicky-yellowish-grey accompanied by a torrential downpour for about an hour. We got about 2 inches of rain. My Dad lives about 10 minutes South of us and much lower (we are on one of the highest spots in the city-that is a really tall old Elm on the left). Dad said he had to go out and clear the drain on the street as the road was beginning to flood. Thankfully it did not get worse for him. The clouds go over us and move right down to where he lives. I find these kind of storms very frightening. I am always on edge till they pass.  We have had quite a few very humid air masses colliding with cold air masses this summer. Alerts were out for all of Southern Ontario. The bad weather was hitting the Maritime Provinces today. They seem to get hit a lot with the bad weather.

Sincere thanks, Gail

Pretty fierce looking!   Sounds like you got lucky.

Beautiful shots with impressive lighting, Gail!

 

Wow,is impressive to see this and for sure with a subject like this deserved to caught some images,even with probability to be dangerous in a moment.Is fascinating how this clouds shapes look,I think was a strong wind too in the area.

Yes it sure was very scary. The clouds here were moving quite fast, but the winds were not really bad at this point. A Warm Humid Mass of air was colliding with a Cold Mass. I recall asking if my husband if he had noticed how suddenly the air had gotten colder. It was really quite cool, yet there was an 'odd' feeling about the atmosphere. We have had some storms, but never clouds quite like this. Thank you Radu for stopping by. I appreciate your visit and sharing your thoughts. ;-) Gail

Sincere thanks for your visit and critique Ruud.

We were very lucky. The clouds were changing shape very rapidly. I have never seen anything like this before.

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With a sky like that it would take me about two seconds to decide to get the hell out of Dodge! Wow! You know nothing good can come out of such angry clouds. (Except a good picture, of course).

I can see your point, but the weather was the same for all of the Greater Toronto Area, meaning even east of Toronto, north to Algonquin Park and East as far as probably Ottawa region. Now that may be difficult for you to envision, but it was a fast moving system, Tornado warnings were in so many places. From our place it was moving South. Once you get closer to Lake Ontario, you get the Lake effect. It was a very strange feeling. Didn't quite know what to think, but we knew where to take shelter. But from the sounds of most Tornadoes of late, especially in the States, you begin to wonder just what is 'safe'?????

 

On this particular day, we just happened to be where the 2 air masses were colliding. A small town northwest of us (about an hour's drive) did get hit. Greg Pichnej, one of our PN Members, sent me a few images, his cottage got hit by very bad winds and he had damage to items on his deck. Fortunately they have a good foundation to their cottage and were able to take refuge there. We would have ended up in our Basement. Thanks so much for your visit!

Hi Gail,

  Wonderful image's with angry looking clouds.  Take care, Patsy

Hi Gail,

A fine documentary set of images and a nice description of what transpired nearby you.

The use of your new lens , using 24mm at F/4 is as good as it gets.

Warmest Regards, Mike

Hi Gail. Wow! This is an amazing image. I have never seen such dramatic clouds. Wonderfully captured. I might try converting this to B&W. I think you could get a very high contrast image out of this that would work very well. Nicely done.

Dear Gail, This is definitely a scary image but well captured by you. Cloud formations are an interesting and sometimes beautiful subject matter. The detail you've captured in this image is very good, I'm almost afraid to ask how close this came and hope there was no damage. Take care.

BR,

Holger

Hi Gail:

Impressive, as all of your work. You definitely have an eye for the magnificent, and this sky certainly is. I understand perfectly that you left part of a roof to give this image some context. With all due respect, and taking nothing whtsoever from this most impressive capture, and just for fun or to see it slightly different, you might try to frame the sky differently, isolating it so that it appears as an "abstract". However, I don't think that such a magnificent sky could pass for an abstraction, because of its nature and discernible signature of a wonderful manifestation of Nature. Your work is most admirable.

Best.

DG

Gail, looking at this impressive image any one would be scare and very concern for their safety. I feel the roof gives the image the reality of how close you were to the disturbance! Congratulations for the image and for not having to experience the scary event. As you know we are in the middle of Hurracaine season, and we are always on edge, already, Andrea, Barry and Chantal, So far we have not been in the cone of terror! I was not in Miami for Andrew, so I have experience only scares but never the real thing. Great image my friend. Warm regards.

I can imagine you are always on edge if you ever hear of bad weather. I would be! I guess it is one of the things you have to become a bit used to when living in Florida. But I don't think one would ever get used to the damage that occurs when one does hit. I hope you will never have to experience one Jorge.

Thank you for that lovely compliment. Believe me, I tried a few things with this image. So much for the imagination to consider. I did try doing it in black and white and I may still, but for some reason, the bit of color made me identify with the feelings I was experiencing at the time. Sincere thanks for dropping by and sharing your input with me. ;-) GAil

I actually saw in last evening's paper (read today) that some of the streets downtown experienced flash floods and a few people had some close calls, not anything like a big 'event'. Power was out to many Hydro customers for awhile. Thankfully these clouds, while not super fast in their movement, did pass us by. I always get scared when I see formations that start to come downwards. Many thanks for your visit and concern Holger.

I actually did convert this to black and white and I may post it that way, but as I mentioned to Daniel, the bit of color really reminded me of just what I was feeling when I saw these clouds. Many thanks for your visit and support Brad.

Many thanks for your input. The lighting was so odd and I felt rather uneasy, so I was not sure just how the images would turn out. I am pleased that they did turn out so well.

I heard there was flash flooding in Tennessee, I hope you did not experience this!!! I appreciate your visit. Will write, Gail