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All posts for the month July, 2025

Trifecta Unexpected: Lightning, Rainbows and Snow

Posted by bubbasuess on July 27, 2025
Posted in: Cascade Range, Hiking, Mount Shasta. 3 Comments

No sooner did I put up an up-to-date collection of rainbows around Mount Shasta then another storm sailed through the area and provided another fascinating specimen, as well as a number of other interesting sights.

Thus far this summer, the temperatures have not been too hot and there has been a staccato rhythm of thunderstorms, each yielding up color temperatures, rain, copious lightning and all the other hallmarks of quality summer storm weather. I honestly can’t remember a series of storms like this in the recent past. This last series of storms, however, was unusual in that it brought a lot of lightning, a totally unique rainbow and fresh snow on Mount Shasta. That is a trio of phenomena that I have not seen before and as Mount Shasta always does, it surprises and defies expectations.

The first wave of the storm was not too exciting but it did leave a very gentle dusting of snow on Mount Shasta. Yet the clouds continued to gather and it was obvious that some exciting weather was building up.

The storm itself was pretty epic. There was so much water coming down that some areas, especially at the north end of the Shasta Valley and Yreka there was a fair amount of flooding. This time lapse (I don’t know if anyone likes these as much as I do, but I really enjoy them!) shows the intensity of the storm and how it develops out of nothing. I especially like at how about 0:35 the clouds stop there westward movement and then suddenly turn and blow eastward. It’s a pretty dramatic reversal.

Like the storm just before the 4th of July, this event had quite a bit of lightning. It wasn’t as intense as the earlier storm but still exciting to witness. It was made even better by the fact that a great deal of the lightning was flying over Mount Shasta. I set up my camera to try to capture it in the evening but it seemed like every bolt was coming in between when my camera was capturing an image. It was frustrating but awesome. The above image was the best I managed to get. Someday, I will get a good shot of the mountain with a fat bolt of lightning.

All of a sudden, as the sun was sinking below the horizon, light red light washed over the mountain and it looking like the forest had burst into flames. The alpenglow was intense. However, even more surprising was that right in the narrow path of the light a rainbow extended upwards. I have never seen a rainbow when it was this dark out. Even more striking was the presence of a faint but discernable second rainbow right in from of Shastarama Point. As the alpenglow faded, the rainbow lingered, since the sun was too low to light the mountain it was still barely high enough to cast light into the rainy sky. Finally the sun was too low the rainbow disappeared and it was dark but for a fleeting moment there had been a truly magical sight to behold.

The next day another storm was forecasted. I headed up to the Old Ski Bowl in the morning to get a shot of the mountain with fresh snow. It had rained a fair amount after the sun set and there was a solid layer on the shady exposures of Mount Shasta above 12,000 feet. I was up there fairly early and it was already beginning to melt off in the sunnier areas. Still, it was pretty spectacular up there, with a new, massive thunderhead building over the mountain’s summit.

The fresh now highlighted the crags of the mountain nicely. It was naturally thicker higher up but even below 11,000 feet there was a surprising amount of snow. It is hard to believe that the snow had come down in the peak of summer but there it was glistening on the slopes.

Heading down, I had hoped to capture a shot of the upper part of Avalanche Gulch and the West Face Gully area, where the snow was especially thick. Unfortunately, I had not factored in the alacrity with which the next storm was brewing and by the time I got down to one of my favorite vantage points, the clouds had built up and covered the summit. Glimpses of fresh snow were visible through the fast moving clouds but, for the most part, it was obscured.

While returning from Yreka later in the day, the new snow was still visible on the cooler north side. Though not obscured by clouds, it was shadowed by the clouds that continued to increase in size. It looked like it was going to be another good storm. It was, however, a storm I wasn’t meant to see, since I was in the hospital with my son (he’s fine) all evening when the lightning and rain really got going.

The next day I headed up to the Old Ski Bowl for the sunset. Most of the snow was gone but the clouds were still clearing. It was absolutely gorgeous. The crags, particularly Thumb Rock and Shastarama Point were highlighted in magnificent fashion by the bits of clouds racing past the cliffs.

All in all, it was a stunning sunset, the kind that is hard to believe we can witness just a short drive from town. Of course, there are amazing sunsets to be witnessed from in town, but each is great in its own way. It was another fascinating round of storms, with some unusual sights to witness. There may be yet another storm next week, before July draws to a close. I hope it is a good one.

Rainbows Around Mount Shasta

Posted by bubbasuess on July 24, 2025
Posted in: Cascade Range, Hiking, Mount Shasta. Tagged: . 5 Comments

My last post, about the thunderstorms prior to the 4th of July, included an image of Mount Shasta graced by a pair rainbows emerging from an intense thunderstorm to the south. This particular storm saw Mount Shasta on the northern fringe of the storm, with the mountain’s northern flanks under blue sky. That meant that the mountain was well positioned to be photographed fairly clearly, with the rainbows beautifully arranged against it. It was a rare and satisfying treat.

I have been trying to photograph Mount Shasta with rainbows for a long time. The ephemeral nature of these brilliant spectacles means the moments where I can catch them are fleeting. This is compounded by the fact that they are only visible from certain angles, so location options are limited in the midst of limited time. The result is I have only captured a few rainbows with Mount Shasta over the years I have been photographing the mountain. Having caught one recently, I thought it would be good to collect them altogether in one place, and thus, this post.

Up until recently, I thought this was the best instance of the mountain and a rainbow I had captured. The sunset color, the pouring rain catching the light and the presence of the rainbow made this one a particularly memorable sight. I got a number of good shots before the sun sank low enough for the rainbow to dissipate but it was fairly long lasting and a lot of fun to photograph, especially with the thunder still booming.

A recent one, this one had good framing and a really strong rainbow but Mount Shasta was so deep in the storm it almost seemed like the mountain was out of focus, even though it was actually the opposite. The out of focus effect really bothered me even though it was a great event.

I got rained on hard for this image. It was difficult to catch a moment when I was not being deluged and the rain not really blocking out the view of the mountain. However, the payoff was worth it, with a double (almost triple) rainbow. If you zoom in, you can see all the rain flying through the air.

This one was especially fast moving. When I saw there was a rainbow I hopped in my car and headed out to try to catch it. My first destination was overtaken by the storm and I had to race down I-5 to get to where I could see the mountain. Even then, it was so fast moving by the time I got my camera set up, the mountain was being consumed by the cloud. Even though Mount Shasta is partially obscured, I really appreciate how the rainbow delineated between the stormy sky and the blue sky.

This was another near miss. Good color on the trees, a quality rainbow and a white mountain. However, there was so much rain, the mountain is hazed out and the light wasn’t very good. Beautiful nonetheless.

I’ve gotten a pair of images of Mount Shasta with a rainbow (the second one, just barely too, as the rainbow was fast disappearing) from the Shasta Valley. Interesting, they were both from the same place and the rainbow appeared at the same point. File that away for the future, I guess. I really want a good rainbow shot from Truchas Ridge…

I have seen rainbows near Mount Shasta on other parts of the Shasta Valley. This one was to the east, near Sheeprock. Thunderstorms in the valley can be tricky and getting the rainbows closer to the mountain has been a difficult objective.

Speaking of the Shasta Valley, I have managed to capture a few good rainbows out there over the years. I think I have actually seen more out there than I have photographed. I will have to be more attentive in the future…

I have gotten a good one of Black Butte with a rainbow from the Shasta Valley. That spot seems to be a good position for the light from the setting sun to cast some good rainbows.

 

A few excellent rainbows have manifested over Black Butte when I was home to capture them. These were particularly intense specimens. On the latter of these two images, the rainbow appeared when I happened to be photographing my friend and his son on top of Black Butte from the front of my house. I don’t know how often it has happened but surely taking pictures of people on top of a mountain through a rainbow is not something that happens very often!

Somehow I even managed to capture a snow rainbow over Black Butte. It happens rarely, but rainbows can form through snow crystals rather than raindrops. On the morning a got this image, there was a very light, very fine snow coming down and it was bitter cold. I was not expecting a rainbow at all but it flamed out of the sky and demanded my attention.

Lastly, fortune gave me one opportunity to capture a rainbow over Mount Eddy. Fortunately I was near a meadow and could get a clear shot of it without having heavy filtration from a bunch of trees. The timing was indeed lucky.

Now that I have pulled it all together, I can see it is not a bad collection of images. Rainbows being what they are, they are difficult to capture in a quality image. Of course, they are much easier than lightning. I am still waiting for my good shot of Mount Shasta with some lightning strikes…

Three Days Of Fireworks (Before The 4th)

Posted by bubbasuess on July 12, 2025
Posted in: Cascade Range, Echo Point, Hiking, Mount Shasta, sunset, Truchas Ridge. 2 Comments

Thunderheads build over Mount Shasta.

Like the beginning of June, July opened up with some thunderstorms. However, while the ones in the previous month yielded some great clouds and the booms of thunder, it paled in comparison to the ones the ushered out June and welcomed us to July. Whatever excellent fireworks were on display on the 4th of July were dwarfed by the natural pyrotechnics. Indeed, this was probably the most spectacular lightning display I have witnessed in the Mount Shasta area.

Things started quickly during the day, with clouds spreading out to the north towards Oregon and massive storm clouds building over Mount Shasta.

In the late afternoon, massive plumes rose over the west side of the Shasta Valley. The clouds themselves were pretty amazing but watching the strange shadows cast by the billowing towers added to their fascination. These harbingers really elevated my expectations for the forecasted storm that evening.

Eventually the storm came and the thunder rumbled but overall, it ultimately left me wanting more. The rain was very light and the lightning was minimal. However, the clouds were still copious, but left little room for light to really make things interesting. Mount Shasta was left in shadow. However, west of Black Butte an opening in the clouds allowed the light of the setting sun to blast through and light the landscape up. It was the most dramatic sight of the day.

Hopeful that the eruption of sunlight might mean a better sunset from the north, I raced into the valley but the mountain had very little light on it. Though disappointing, I watched with envy at the color scene on the western horizon. You can’t always get the best light by the mountain but it was a colorful end to June.

The next, day the storm clouds built throughout the day but the afternoon brought conditions that shocked me. The forecast made it look like the next day was the bigger storm but the wind was powerful and it felt like something massive was brewing. Mount Shasta was visible throughout, but the clouds swirled around the summit throughout the evening.

This video shows how rapidly the storm built and the dramatic way Mount Shasta was swallowed up by the storm and the rain surged out of the clouds.

When the storm finally peaked, the lightning was fast and came down all around. I saw it hit multiple peaks around Mount Shasta. When it came, the rain also came hard and lasted well into the night. This was good, because the lightning was so abundant it doubtless would have started numerous fires. This was definitely not going to be the case given how much precipitation came down.

In the midst of this storm the setting sun burst through the cloud and lit everything up in magnificent fashion. Oddly enough, Mount Shasta was still dark, untouched by the explosion of light. Mount Eddy was bathed in purple while it was a flaming orange further to the north.

Even in the midst of the light of the setting sun, the lightning continued to flash and I was able to capture some of it while getting images of Mount Eddy in the stormy alpenglow. It was all really amazing.

July 2nd was the last day forecasted to have thunderstorms and true to this expectation, the storm grew throughout the day. However, unlike the previ0us days’ storms, the focus was south of Mount Shasta, rather than north of it.

This meant that the afternoon deluge was focused on the south side of the mountain. The result was the western position of the sun yielding fantastic rainbows around Mount Shasta. I have tried to get shots of the mountain with rainbows for years and I think these were the best ones I have been able to capture. This alone would have meant the storm had given me high rewards. Everything after this was just icing on the cake!

I headed out into the Shasta Valley once again. The rainbow, now visible over Black Butte, was finally fading when I got there.

Even though the rainbow was gone, the clouds continued to swirl around Mount Shasta. This meant awesome shadows sailing across the landscape, providing a lot of visual interest around the mountain.

Heading up to Echo Point, I watched the clouds finally fade away and the sun light up Mount Shasta, brining a close to 3 epic days of storms. The alpenglow on the mountain marked the closing moments, capping an awesome lead of to the fireworks of Independence Day.