Some of you who check in here from time to time may have run across this on your own in the past several months, but I just happened upon the link a few days ago, and found these to be the most stunningly otherworldly mammatus cloud images I've ever seen. Thought you might like to have a look as well. There are also some nice tornado and lightning photos in the gallery link at the bottom of the page I'm referring you too. Funny thing is, when I was showing these to my wife and explaining how mammatus clouds got their name, she said the ones in a couple of these photos looked to her more like we were being "mooned" by angels! Here's the link:
http://www.hprcc.unl.edu/nebraska/june2004hastings-mammatus.html
On the local weather scene, the system that crossed the region over the Christmas weekend behaved pretty much according to expectations, with some thunder in the east and rainfall totals that mostly fell between .2 and .6 inches, after a forecast of something between one and three quarters of an inch.
Friday of last week brought the first observation of a daily mean temperature at RDU that fell above "normal" (defined as the thirty-year average ending with 2000), after something like 18 days in a row on the cool side. We're back down in the normal range today after weekend highs of 61 and 62, but it appears we'll revert to the mild side again for most of the remainder of the year starting tomorrow. Another rain (and maybe thunder)-producing system appears to be in the cards for Wednesday night into Thursday, with rainfall amounts to be determined, but probably in a similar range to the system that just departed. Once again, no frozen precipitation, with a few possible wrap-around exceptions in the mountains as the storm pulls away, though it may be warm enough this time around to make even that an outside shot.
