Lightning In Lake Tahoe

 

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               Lightning strikes across the lake. The sky above the storm filled with negative particles, in the mature part of the storm, will light up when the stepped leader is looking for positive particles on the ground to connect with(in the clip in slow motion the stepped leader can be seen). The forked lightning comes down and the traveling spark connects to the positive part it selected on the ground. Click HERE to watch the clip.

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Clouds around Lake Tahoe

Photo's by Parker Alexander 

 The lake is found on the leeward side of the Sierra Mountain range. The summer season is hot and dry and the winter is cold and dry.

 

 Orographic lifting occurs on the Sierra mountain range. The leeward side of the mountain receives rain shadows and Chinook winds. Being the dry side with desert conditions in Reno the area has a large lake at the bottom of the mountain that creates different weather patterns. The storms leaving the windward side of the mountain are carried over by the Chinook winds, if the clouds pick up the moisture over the lake it can create unusually large storms for the region. Large storms  mostly occur in Tahoe in the winter and spring.

    With surface elevation of 6,225 ft the cumulus clouds form closer over the lake. Cumulonimbus clouds have the characteristics of puffy, large, storm clouds that form anvil shapes. In these clouds, the strong updrafts bring water molecules into a cycle coming up with the drafts, freezing, then coming back down to only be taken back by the updrafts. Each trip back up into the cloud allows the hail to freeze again, which adds size with a ring like layers to the hail. The hail drops to the ground when it is to heavy to be swept up. 

 The bottom of clouds are flat because that is the level of dew point. The air is trying to achieve condensation at the dew point.

 

 

With surface elevation of 6,225 ft the cumulus clouds form closer over the lake.

 

When jets or planes travel through, from the local Tahoe or close Reno airport, in the sky energy is released in a form of heat. That heat condenses in different temperatures revealing the path of contrails in the sky.

 

 

Sources:

 

Hail picture: http://www.laketahoenews.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/hail.jpg

Information:

http://clasfaculty.ucdenver.edu/callen/1202/Climate/Moisture/WaterMoistureClouds.html

http://clasfaculty.ucdenver.edu/callen/1202/Climate/Weather/Weather.html

http://tahoe.usgs.gov/text_version.html