What's Going On Here? (hint: it's NOT snowing)

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georged

Lifer
Mar 7, 2013
5,491
13,920
A board member who's a long haul trucker posted some cool sunset photos in another thread, which reminded me that I had some interesting road photos in a forgotten folder you might get a kick out of.
These shots were taken 2-3 seconds apart in the sequence shown. They have not been processed or altered in any way.
Something rarely seen (in the US, anyway) is happening. Can you guess what it is? (Double hint: it's not RAINING, either)
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Elk-Mountain-014.jpg


Elk-Mountain-015.jpg


Elk-Mountain-016.jpg


Elk-Mountain-017.jpg


Elk-Mountain-020.jpg


Elk-Mountain-021.jpg


 

georged

Lifer
Mar 7, 2013
5,491
13,920
Still nopes all round. :mrgreen:
Further hint: Though rare even here, this stretch of highway is where you're most likely to encounter it. (It's also where the photos were taken)
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Screen-Shot-2019-07-05-at-2-34-46-PM.png


 

workman

Lifer
Jan 5, 2018
2,793
4,219
The Faroe Islands
Sea spray was my first thought, but now I think it may be in Illinois windwards from The Chicago Pipe Show and that is actually the smoke from rare, old tobaccos smoldering.

 

jpmcwjr

Moderator
Staff member
May 12, 2015
24,568
27,070
Carmel Valley, CA
Yeah, well smoke, I wrote before the edit, but I see that's wrong now.
I-80 exhaust?
Mayflies?
Dusog? (Dust and fog)
Fog and smoke (Foke)?
Holographic Laser beams?

 

georged

Lifer
Mar 7, 2013
5,491
13,920
DING DING DING!!!
It's Spielberg-style Aliens (notice the capital "A") in a giant UFO trying to kidnap a batch of humans with their giant vacuum cleaner, only they hit the "exhaust" switch by accident and we all survived to tell the tale.
Obvious after the fact, right?

 

jguss

Lifer
Jul 7, 2013
2,412
6,215
I thought I recognized that stretch of road. I was probed there once in the summer of 1973.

 

elbert

Part of the Furniture Now
Mar 10, 2015
604
28
Looks like a chinook wind.
Terrifying, whatever it is. I spent December and January running walmart dedicated out of Cheyenne. The best thing I can say about that stretch of road in the winter is that it ain't I-70.

 

georged

Lifer
Mar 7, 2013
5,491
13,920
OK...
Nah, it wasn't really Aliens.
I was spoofin' y'all about that.
:nana:
What you're seeing there is called a "ground blizzard". It's already-fallen snow being blown sideways over the ground at 70-90 mph. If you looked straight up, the sky was clear and blue.
Despite the name, it's not a storm. Not even a true weather event. Just the convergence of loose ice and snow and monster-strong straight winds. That stretch of highway through Wyoming is at the exit end of a massive funnel-ish geological formation where it meets the base of a mountain, which combine to "squeeze" normal velocity winds from the north into a de facto wind tunnel. Add the right density pre-fallen snow to the equation and from time to time you get the kind of whiteout you'd normally only see in Antarctica or similar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz2SeEzxMuE

 
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