The Angry Belcher

Just some of my favorite pics of my brother Ray, who would have been 64 today. He’s been gone almost two years and I still miss our late night phone chats about absolutely nothing (“I got nothin'”), cheap bike tires (Vrederstein Fortezza Tri-Comps at $25 were, in Ray’s words, practically free), pets, his memorable laugh, how, when he first met my 3-month old son, his nephew, he couldn’t wait to carry him in his carrier and ride in the back seat with him, and his voracious enjoyment of the even slightest cute story I could tell him about the kid as he grew.

On Tuesday May 29th, some pretty decent supercell thunderstorms rolled through western Oklahoma. Of the two more dominant cells, one was to the northwest of Oklahoma City moving southeast and another was to the southwest, tracking northeast.  As I was out on my evening bike ride, I was able to observe both as they approached OKC (where they converged quite violently).  And, being a bit of a weather wonk and occasional storm chaser, I stopped to take a few pics. The photos are nothing special, but I found them kinda neat nonetheless…

The northern edge of southwest storm’s anvil (note the OKC West Mesonet station in the foreground)

By now, my 10 mph wind from the southeast had turned into a 25 mph (gusting to 35 mph) inflow gale as the NW storm drew closer. Visually, it was somewhat grungy and nondescript, but for a brief, fleeting moment, it did provide a nice reflection of OKC’s now lopsided skyline (with the Fairgrounds’ space needle in front). In a perfect world, I would have gotten to this spot about two minutes earlier but, as the OKC Fairgrounds are on seemingly permanent lockdown, the leading edge of the NW storm just managed to occlude the better sunlight before I could get into position to grab this shot…

By now, it was obvious I needed to pedal home.  I finish a block from my house, then usually ride up to a nearby bank parking lot to do cool down laps. I got greedy and decided to do just that and knew I was pushing my luck. I was on my way north when I looked up and saw this odd little sunlight reflection (odd because the setting sun was by now covered by the approaching NW cell and because it appeared in the eastern sky…).

A few seconds after I snapped this photo, I saw my first cloud to ground lightning strike which was followed closely by a roll of thunder, indicating it was time to get my ass home. I flogged it for six blocks and was only a block from home when I got blasted by the leading edge winds of the SW storm. Rolled up just as the first rain began to blow in.

Overall, not the greatest pics (but not bad, considering they were taken with my phone, while my heart rate was somewhere north of 110 bpm), but certainly a departure from my normal bike ride routine…