photo #6306326

A balcony on the 17th floor is the perfect spot for watching a storm. So says Linda Crebbin (Member 58,170), who watched this ‘small yet intense’ storm cell building at the end of a hot and humid day in the Belconnen district of Canberra, Australia. In the middle, we see a Cumulonimbus calvus storm cloud ‘just letting it all go,’ as Linda put it. With a smoother top, this is the earlier stage of development of a Cumulonimbus cloud. As it builds, it is reaching the spreading upper canopy, or incus, of a far larger Cumulonimbus capillatus mature storm cloud off on the horizon to the left. Canberra, it seems, is in for a rough night. But first, the setting Sun is going to paint the gathering storm clouds gold. And from her balcony, Linda can see it all: ‘the fire of the sunset spreading above the intense rain of the storm below.’