Classic Summertime Shelf Cloud over Champaign-Urbana, IL
- Andrew Pritchard
- Jul 18
- 1 min read
Enjoying a pretty classic July Saturday in central Illinois. Too muggy to be comfy outside by Noon, beautiful puffy cumulus clouds dotting the horizon by 3 PM, and a shelf cloud sweeping into town at 7 PM with blustery winds, heavy rain, and lots of rumbly thunder to follow.
After pulling some pizzas out of the oven I ran out front and got the drone in the air as a broken line of storms moved into the area from the north. There was a pretty little shelf cloud stretching across the horizon so I snapped off a few photos and ran some video / time lapse t-storm b-roll as the storms rolled in.
Freaked myself out a little by waiting too long to get the drone down before outflow winds started blowing it off to the south down the street I live on. I took off after it barefoot while bringing it down, getting it low enough over a neighbors roof that the wind stopped shoving it south. Did some FlightSim (tm) style flying to get it over the sidewalk and hovered there until I could run over to it. Pretty darned funny AFTER I had retrieved it. Alls well that ends well, and it was a lovely storm to enjoy some pizza and a root beer with from home.
It's nice to enjoy some summer storms from the porch after a busy storm chasing season on the road.
