The next couple of pics are interesting in the fact the Monticello/Becker nuke plant is capable of producing it's own weather and I'm not talking about some of the knothead spotter and John Q Public reports of tornadoes, funnel clouds, and monster wall clouds with rising motion every time an updraft from a thundershower passes over the plant's cooling ponds.
Yes, evidently you can get cooling and condensation to occur rapidly enough to produce "Power Plant Effect Snow". With the winds at near 0 degrees due north this morning and temps barely above zero, we were able to drive directly down wind of the plume of steam and sure enough, it was snowing lightly.
A little further down the road the show had accumulated a little more and even caused mini snow rollers to form. Pretty cool...or maybe I am just that bored with the weather pattern again.
We stopped in Clearwater, MN for a jerky break at the Holiday station before heading for home when Cullen spotted this cardinal in the tree near the parking lot.
Noisy bugger. Maybe he was complaining about how cold it was despite not having hardly any snow cover left.
2 comments:
I used to see the power plant effect at my last place. Sometimes it would happen on clear mornings and the steam plume would precipitate ... and sometimes if there were low clouds, the plume would 'seed' the cloud deck. Kind of neat!
Power plant effect snow? Thats a new one on me, and they say man cant change the weather...HA! [kidding, im not a global warming nutcase...] that is pretty neat tho...the ways we find amusement in the weather in the offseason.
Post a Comment