Iowa: Ground Zero for Mammatus Yesterday Evening...

A round of severe thunderstorms produced widespread hail across a large chunk of central and northern Iowa yesterday afternoon and evening.

While some of the hail was destructive, the thunderstorm activity also produced beautiful mammatus clouds across the region, as shared by KWWL Chief Meteorologist Mark Schnackenberg (viewer photos):

Mammatus clouds are often associated with severe thunderstorms, particularly those which are prolific hail producers.  Their grouping, lobe like character are associated with turbulence bubbling up and down in the anvil or "belly" of a severe thunderstorm.

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Cool Images of Dust Cloud Over Oklahoma / Northwest TX on Monday 2-20-12...

Update, 8pm CST: The following photo was taken about the same time as the visible satellite image in the original post. It was taken by Blake Brown at News9 in Oklahoma City. Look at the wall of dust, mixed with rain as the line of storms and dust cloud moved through the city!  Note the rainbow thrown in at the lower left hand corner:

What an awesome shot!  It reminds me of what I saw when I opened up the roof hatch at KAKE-TV in Wichita, KS on June 19, 1990.  The wall of dust looked very similar as it advanced toward us.  Too bad digital cameras weren't around back then, in the stone ages...

-----------------------------------Original Post Below:

Lets play a game of meteorological "Where's Waldo..."

Can you see the large plume of dust on the visible satellite image above?

The satellite picture was taken about 5 minutes ago...

Here's a hint:  Look closely over southwest Oklahoma and northwest Texas...

Can you see it?

Here's the answer, outlined in yellow:

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Another Round of Storms for the Sooner State

A large complex of rain and thunderstorms is moving into the Oklahoma City Metro area at this time. The above picture was taken by Rick Smith of the NWS in Norman on top of the National Weather Center building on the OU Campus a few minutes ago.  You can see the long, bowing "shelf cloud" out ahead of the activity, which signifies the strong, gusty winds blowing out of the thunderstorm complex.

Here is another view of the shelf cloud taken by storm chaser Chris Sanner in Norman at about the same time:

Radar shows the large area of beneficial rain (albeit with some gusty winds initially) will continue to overspread the region during the morning hours:

The Tulsa area will get it on the Northeast quadrant of the activity as well, it appears....

We just need to figure out how to get this rain into Texas!  

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