Picture(s) And Video A Day – 2 October 2010 – Storms And Mt. Charleston

Yes, I’m still alive and blogging   I know I haven’t been posting as much as I used to and I want to try to make it up to y’all

Yesterday saw thunderstorms coming up from the south into and through Las Vegas.  I took the opportunity to go play in the rain, watch the lightning, and listen to the thunder in the desert 8)  And yes, I took pictures

I normally start with pictures and put the video at the end of a post, but I decided to change it up a bit.

Those are all the pictures you see here along with a little bit of video.  The description I put up on YouTube says,

I’m a sucker for getting out in thunderstorms and rain and we finally had some of those here in Las Vegas yesterday. I followed the weather up onto Mt. Charleston and while I wasn’t able to keep up with the precipitation, I think I got some good pictures ;-) Yes, fall is finally coming and the temperatures are dropping!
There is a little bit of genuine video in this slide show right at bout 1:26 into the production. You’ll see some clouds blowing across a mountain top. This is shown at normal speed – I just thought it was nice to see ‘em moving like that ;-)
The music is from YouTube’s “audio swap” library and is called “Beautifully True” – the artist is Musicshake
Have a great day and thanks for watching!

So that’s the video.  Now on to the pictures

2 October 2010 - Las Vegas Metro P.D. helicopter heading back to the airport

The storm was still down a little ways off to the south but it was coming in, no question about that.  I’d seen it on the weather radar and I could tell it wasn’t just a little rain shower.  This Metro officer had the right idea – get the whirlybird on the ground

2 Oct 2010 - Panorama - Thunderstorm near Las Vegas

This was taken from the same spot as the helicopter picture above but looking south instead of north.  Can you see all the rain shafts coming down from the clouds?  I love this type of thing

2 October 2010 - Driving through a Las Vegas thunderstorm

Don’t worry – this pic was a very quick snap of the shutter on my camera phone while the car was completely stopped

2 October 2010 - Thunderstorm near Mt. Charleston

This pic was taken on the way north on Highway 95.  You can’t really see Mt. Charleston here because of the rain.

2 October 2010 - Looking south toward Las Vegas from near Mt. Charleston

2 October 2010 - Panorama - Near Mt. Charleston looking south toward Las Vegas

2 October 2010 - Panorama - Vegas on the left and Mt. Charleston on the right

Take a look at the left side of the horizon in each of the above pictures and you’ll see the famous Las Vegas Strip   Gotta love those wide open spaces

2 October 2010 - The interior of the car got just a bit damp

While getting in and out of the car for the above pics the rain had a chance to get into the car – it was coming down just about straight sideways

2 October 2010 - Mt. Charleston is in the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area

2 October 2010 - My HHR near the sign for the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area

Yep, I was on my way up onto Mt. Charleston

2 October 2010 - Clouds on the mountain

I don’t get to see this very often now that I live in Las Vegas.

2 October 2010 - Desert View Overlook - You've seen pics from here before

If you haven’t guessed yet, this is one of my favorite places to visit on Mt. Charleston

2 October 2010 - Evergreens and manzanita isn't normal most places

I’ve been on a lot of mountains in the American southwest and this still strikes me as funny.  I think that’s some sort of fir or spruce tree in with the manzanitas and other scrub foliage.  Definitely not normal but hey, it’s Vegas

2 October 2010 - The storm clouds were dark, but they were moving out

I had to dial back the exposure to get the structure in the clouds, but that’s about what they looked like to me.  Pretty cool!

2 October 2010 - Panorama - Light, shadow, forest, and desert all in one picture

I thought this was a pretty cool scene too with the differences in geography and light all in one frame

2 October 2010 - Panorama - View from the desert overlook

Here’s a view looking north from the lookout.  You can see the rain falling on the Sheep Range in the distance.

2 October 2010 - Lee Meadows on Mt. Charleston

What a difference a few months can make!  This is just about the same place I took some pictures back on 23 May when it was snowing like crazy   One of the best pictures is here and the post it’s from is here

2 October 2010 - A few fall colors beginning to appear at the Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort

2 October 2010 - A few fall colors beginning to appear at the Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort

These two pics are just about the same, but one is a bit wider than the other.  One of the trees on the side of the ski run caught my eye with its bright yellow color

2 October 2010 - A few fall colors beginning to appear at the Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort

Here we have yet another ski run and a couple of lifts, but I took the picture because of the colors – we don’t have a lot of green down here in the desert

October 2010 - Panorama - Clouds, shadows, and light on Mt. Charleston

October 2010 - Panorama - Clouds, shadows, and light on Mt. Charleston

The air was cool and damp and smelled of wet forest.  I could get used to that

2 October 2010 - Watch for icycles - That time's not far off 8)

Yes, the sign is misspelled.  I thought it was funny to see it in the off season and I hope to find a way to come back when it actually has some meaning

2 October 2010 - I haven't seen a pay phone in a long time!

Nope, I haven’t seen one of these in quite a while!  With cellphones everyone has instant communication with them all the time so they’re dying out.  I know they’re still around because I work in that field, but I really took notice because this is an area where nobody has cell service and it might come in handy sometime.  I thought about this and tried my blue OnStar button and found out that the blue button and the emergency buttons for OnStar work even here – those are on a two-way satellite service that works just about anywhere you can go in your vehicle

October 202 10 - It felt good to be cold after another long, hot Las Vegas summer

I can’t count the number of days I’ve spent in Vegas when the temperature soared over 110° and sometimes that was by a wide margin.  I’m done with summer for this year and ready for fall.  Shorts, flip flops, and a T-shirt are more suited to warmer weather, but I just enjoyed being freezing cold for a while

Right before this picture was taken, my Canon point and shoot digital camera finally gave up the ghost.  This image and those that follow it were all taken with my cellphone.  Having a 3.1 megapixel camera built into your phone can come in really handy sometimes

October 2010 - Clouds, shadows, and light on the desert coming down from Mt. Charleston

October 2010 - Clouds, shadows, and light on the desert coming down from Mt. Charleston

October 2010 - Clouds, shadows, and light on the desert coming down from Mt. Charleston

October 2010 - Clouds, shadows, and light on the desert coming down from Mt. Charleston

October 2010 - Clouds, shadows, and light on the desert coming down from Mt. Charleston

Leaving Mt. Charleston and the forest behind didn’t take much time.  I’d say it was about 30 minutes or less from the time I was in the evergreens to the time I was in the joshua trees.  Gotta love the scenery when the sun gets low in this area

October 2010 - Sunset over the desert northwest of Las Vegas

Here I was just south of Indian Springs.  I figured I’d grab a snack and a soda in the gas station.  Believe me, the picture really doesn’t do this scene justice.  It’s nice to have some texture in the sky for a change

That’s all for now.  Here’s hoping you liked the pics and the video and that you have a great week