When Clouds Collide

 

During "monsoon season" in New Mexico, rain doesn't come out of a layer of stratus clouds blanketing the sky from horizon to horizon.  It usually comes from large isolated cells of turbulent clouds that move blindly across the landscape.

Occasionally those storm cells crash (slowly) into each other, creating more random turbulence and, if the light is right, some dramatic visuals.  Last Saturday evening was one of those times.

Two cells were involved:  one rising to the southeast above the Sandia Mountains . . .

. . . the other moving from the northwest toward the mountains.

Here's a map showing the relative locations of the cloud cells.  My location is the red pin.  Ignore the circle with the star in it.

The dark cell from the northwest moving toward the white cell in the southeast extended a long "finger" of clouds ahead of the core of the cell.  Here's what it looked like from my back patio:

View looking northwest

View looking southeast

As the cloud "finger" passed nearby, you could see the turbulence in the clouds . . . and below the clouds (behind the house) there's rain coming down.  The two images below were made about 5 minutes apart.

Looking back toward the northwest from my driveway (on the front side of my house), here comes the rest of the storm cell:

And notice the flag in the image above (lower right corner).  The wind was blowing pretty hard at this point.

In a few minutes, the dark northwestern cell was crashing (slowly) into the white cloud cell over the mountains, as you can see in the image below:

At this point, it started to rain, and we went out to eat dinner.  When we returned about an hour later, the trailing edge of the northwest cloud cell was approaching, creating a gap between the cloud and the horizon where the setting sun could illuminate the scene.

Ten miles to the southeast, however, the sun wasn't low enough yet, so the clouds and mountains in shadow looked like this:

The trailing edge of the northwest cell kept moving east and the sun fell closer to the horizon, eventually illuminating the clouds piled up above the mountains.

You'll notice the weird light (above and below).  After rain, the northwest cell brought lots of smoke . . . apparently from wildfires in southwestern Colorado.  You can see it in the haze at the horizon.

By now, the white cloud cell over the mountains has been completely obscured -- or maybe subsumed or destroyed -- by the northwest cell.  Here's a wider view looking ESE:

After the sun fell below the horizon, the light on the eastern scene faded, and those orange clouds turned gray:

But the show wasn't quite over yet.  The trailing edge of the northwest cell overhead was now being illuminated from below by the sun that, from the ground, was below the horizon.

A few minutes later, it was all over.

If you would like to see these images in a larger format, please visit my photography website, Todos Juntos Photography, by clicking here.

Enjoy!

Monsoon Cloud Action, Part 3 - June 12

 

This is the last in a series of three posts, all depicting monsoon cloud action visible from my neighborhood in Corrales, New Mexico, over a three-day period June 10-12, 2025.  This post contains images from June 12.  You can see the previous days' posts by scrolling further down below this post.

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Most of this day was overcast, with an occasional short sprinkle of rain . . . a typical monsoon pattern.

But approaching sunset, the clouds began to break up in the east . . .

. . . and in the west the sun dropped into a narrow gap between the heavy clouds and the horizon, kissing the tops of the sagebrush and trees with "golden hour" backlight.

Seeing what was happening, I grabbed my camera to shoot whatever the sunlight would illuminate for as long as it lasted.

Moments later, shadows blanketed our yard, but the sun still shone on the higher-elevation Sandia Mountains and clouds to the east . . . and that's when the show began:

Five minutes later, the whole sky was ablaze with color on the clouds . . .

And we even got one end of a rainbow . . .

Looking south (90 degrees to the right of the photo above), brilliantly-lit virga was reaching for -- but not making it to -- the ground:

And further around to the southwest, the setting sun was illuminating the underside of the cloud layer:

The whole show lasted only about 20 minutes . . . but, as you can see, it was glorious!

If you would like to see these images in a larger format, please visit my website, Todos Juntos Photography, by clicking here.

Enjoy!  

Monsoon Cloud Action, Part 2 - June 11

 

This is the second in a series of three posts, all depicting monsoon cloud action visible from my neighborhood in Corrales, New Mexico, over a three-day period June 10-12, 2025.  This post contains images from June 11.  You can see the previous day's post by scrolling further down below this post.

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          Hamlet:  Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in the shape of a camel?

          Polonius:  By th' mass, and 'tis like a camel indeed.

          Hamlet:  Methinks it is like a weasel.

          Polonius:  It is backed like a weasel.

          Hamlet:  Or like a whale?

          Polonius:  Very like a whale.

                           --  Hamlet, Act III, Scene 2

Some shape-shifting clouds to pique your pareidolia.

Watch as this cloud becomes a wolf . . .

and then transforms into a bunny rabbit:

After sunset, a lovely view of "blue hour" clouds:

If you would like to see these images, please visit my website, Todos Juntos Photography, by clicking here.

Enjoy! 

Monsoon Cloud Action, Part 1 - June 10

 

This is the first in a series of three posts, all depicting monsoon cloud action visible from my neighborhood in Corrales, New Mexico, over a three-day period June 10-12, 2025.  The images in this post are from June 10; images from June 11 and 12 will appear in separate forthcoming posts.

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Out here in the Southwest, we're now in "monsoon season," the three months from mid-June to mid-September when we get half our annual rainfall (which means we get about 4-5" -- woo hoo!).  As the weather systems crank up, we are treated to some magnificent displays of clouds . . . with little if any actual rain.

A few weeks ago, just ahead of the season, we had three days in a row of great cloud shapes and colors that I'd like to share with you here.  We begin with June 10.

On this evening there were four distinct cloud formations in separate areas of the sky.  Each formation evolved/moved over time, and in one case began to merge into each other.  There were also a couple of random, isolated formations unrelated to the primary ones.  I'll show you examples of each area/category.

ISOLATED CLOUD FORMATIONS

CLOUD TSUNAMI WAVE - Looking Southeast

Rising above the Sandia Mountains was an immense cloud formation that looked like a giant ocean wave.  Over the space of about 30 minutes it morphed into the shape of a giant fish head:

CLOUD WITH VIRGA - Looking South

Virga is falling rain that doesn't reach the ground, like the dark streaks coming out of the underside of this formation:

Just to the right (west) of the virga cloud was another formation.  You can see both of them in this image:

Here's the southwestern cell by itself . . .

. . . and the sky above it:

NORTHWESTERN CLOUD SHELF

Most dramatic was the shelf of clouds moving toward and above me coming from the northwest:

As the leading edge passed overhead (moving left to right in the image below), the trailing edge left openings for the setting sun to shine through:

The leading edge passed overhead moving south-southeast toward the Sandia Mountains and the virga formation to the south . . .

Meanwhile, in the northwest, the sun was setting, lighting up the trailing edge of the cloud shelf:

and illuminating the ground near the base of the Sandias:

More beautiful sunset light on the underside of the cloud shelf:

As the sun fell further below the horizon, the big cloud shelf crashed (slowly!) into the southern (virga) and southwestern formations:

. . . and the sunlight faded away:

If you would like to see these images in a larger format, please visit my website, Todos Juntos Photography, by clicking here.

Enjoy!