Weather drama

After missing most of the snow and stormy weather this winter season, we're getting some snow now that is actually sticking to the ground, here in NE PA, USA.

BEAUTIFUL!

Stay safe out there! The photo is a different day,, still as exhilarating as any beautiful wonder of nature!

Sunshine is delicious, 

rain is refreshing, 

wind braces us up, 

snow is exhilarating; 

there is really no such thing as bad weather, 

only different kinds of good weather.

John Ruskin

sunset last night

A lovely #sunset last night.

8-15pm, shortly before a thunderstorm, bringing in a coldfront.

Very humid. 

There are thunderstorm warnings for all surrounding counties.

LOVE those rays.

the sun is disappearing.

This is a few minutes later. 

mountain and sky

BEAUTIFUL SUNSETS

in my backyard

On the Wilkes-Barre area side of the Susquehanna River looking west to the mountain range beyond the river and Kingston/Forty Fort, towards the back mountain (Dallas, Shavertown, Trucksville). The deep dip in the mountain range is where the CrossValley (Rt 309) cuts up and through on its way "North".
map of the area

a few days ago

and a few days before that

a beautiful after-storm sky 

and the day before that...

LOVELY!!! Have a great day! TGIF!!

Sunset location & "warm" day

frigid #weather this #winter!
3-1-2014 was a "warm-up" (high temp low 30'sdF)

(also below at the end: link to live webcam of a bald eagle nest,

not local, but in Pennsylvania. They just got snow, too.)

The sunset's on it's way back towards the right, nestling in the dip in the mountain range during the Summer, where our  local main road, the CrossValley Expressway cuts through, going North.

These sunset photos were taken from approx 5:44pm to 5:55pm.

 I love the color palette here. Interesting clouds, too!

There's a plane!!!

 Good night!

I've been watching this nest off and on the last few days. 

Once I saw the "changing of the guard! When the parents switched places.

COOL!

Here's the link, so you can see it, too:

live webcam, bald eagle nest, Pittsburgh PA

I'm putting together a portfolio project of fog lifting one cold day in January 2014.

There's one view at Market St. Bridge looking  towards Wilkes-Barre that I'm not settled on yet.

WHICH DO YOU LIKE BETTER?

here's the link:

Choose which photo is better.   

Here's part of another photo that may be in that photo-documentary of that surprisingly beautiful day.

Ducks at Market St Bridge

Mid January - a frigid cold snap

I was photographing the fog lifting, looking toward Wilkes-Barre

from Nesbitt Park on the Kingston side of the Susquehanna river.

They happened to fly overhead

(the birds, not the words ;-)

I'm putting together a collection of photos from that morning:

"Fog Lifting"

They will be posted one of these days at

www.behance.net/christina-v

and a few will be chosed for: http://christina-verdgeline.artistwebsites.com/ 

FRIGID FLOW

We've had some frigid weather, 

and some ice in the river as a result.

AWESOME!

Winter in NEPA

Late November is when we started to get seasonal snow. Here are a few shots, all 3 a little North of the My Mountain location in Wilkes-Barre area.

First, here's a view I shared in an earlier post. Same viewpoint, different time of year.

Still beautiful. Here, its quiet calm serene, with a light snow, late November.

 Energetic cheery red berries - kind of an abstract of color.

This is a tree that my father planted many many years ago.

We call it "The Dedo Tree"

(Dedo is 1 way of saying grandfather in Croatian.)

The cool visual cacophony of this composition would have been his style :o) 

Last Night's Eerie Drama

We had a storm front moving through - & some DRAMATIC cloud formations in the sky!

The start of a humid & warmer-than-usual few days for the Labor Day holiday weekend, 

with highs averaging in the mid 80s.  (this was actually night before last, Aug 29, 2013)

** Here's a panoramic view**

just as it's starting

I also show closeups left & right, below this photo.

They are all within 10 minutes: 7:40pm or so - 7:50pm.

THE SETUP

Around 7:00 we noticed the sky outside... it didn't look yellow, in fact there were bright blue areas to the Southwest (That's the left side of this photo), but it "felt" yellow.  The air itself was yellow - 

a thick dark yellow.

The wind was still - nonexistant, even though you could tell something was approaching from up the street. Eerie!

I went outside, the sun had just dipped down behind the mountain - the sun sets in the center of the panorama above, right where there's a dip in the crest, a passage through the mountain to the other side.

(ALRIGHT,... 

I can't resist ...

 imagine creepy sci-fi music playing as you read, "to the other side" above.)

Back to reality people! That "dip" in the mountains is where the local highway, the North Cross Valley Expressway, rt 309, cuts and climbs through the mountain, giving access from the major highways and the Wyoming Valley cities & riverside towns... "to the other side" (couldn't resist again), to the "Back Mountain" as it's called locally, towns of Shavertown, Trucksville, Dallas... I posted a Google map on August 14, 2013.

     I digress. So... I went outside. the sky was blue, we had just had a nice sunset with greying clouds lined with streaks of pink then purple. Nice. But,    the    air      felt     yellow.  I turned around and looked up the street (off the panoramic view, off from the right).  The sky was an entire mass of GRAY. Heavy. Then I started hearing lots of distant rumblings. You probably guessed right - those rumblings were approaching thunder & lightning. You could palpably feel the air getting thicker, then the breezes started as I ran around the yard, prepping for a storm, in case there were strong gusts.

A FEW PHOTOS OF IMPRESSIVE CLOUDS EVENT

     Then I went inside, upstairs to the window where I can get the best shots, and started shooting. 

 First was the panoramic view above.

Closer view looking LEFT: approx 7:43pm

     

Closer view looking LEFT: approx 7:49pm

Interesting how some clouds started poking up higher & higher at the top.

Closer view looking RIGHT: approx 7:43pm

 Closer view looking RIGHT: approx 7:49pm

(In this shot I zoomed back out. I wanted to catch what I could of the huge cloud at the top.)

Then the sky turned grey, almost completely cloud-covered,

as the storm arrived.

FINAL NOTE: I wish you could have been here! I'm sure you probably experienced similar weather events, so you know how powerful the visuals and feelings can get. After this, there was nothing worth recording. It was grey. there was wind. Some rain. Somewhat anti-climactic. 

But this part was really quite fun. And beautiful.

 *1 or 2 of these photos will be available at http://christina-verdgeline.artistwebsites.com in the "My Mountain" gallery.