photo #6590793

Storm Cloud Week: WednesdayThe Line Storm by John Steuart Curry depicts a rural scene from 1930s America with workers perched on a wagon loaded high with loose hay. They are looking across to a looming Cumulonimbus storm cloud as lightning cracks in the distance. The leading edge of this storm is a bright and sharply defined arched cloud feature known as an arcus, or shelf cloud. This ten-minute warning of the cloud world arrives with gusts of cooling wind shortly before a storm’s deluge. The teamster at the reins will have to steady the excited mules not to spill the precious cargo before they reach the shelter of the barn. Making hay while the Sun shines is an age-old agricultural challenge, for there’s little point trying to cure or store rain-soaked hay. Farmers the world over still race to collect the last of the cut-and-dried hay as storms approach, and no doubt a few also know that once the arcus arrives, their time’s almost up.The Line Storm (1935) by John Steuart Curry, held in a private collection