Although born a North Dakotan, I grew up in the Rocky Mountains. I love snow as much as I love the mountains themselves. So when I found a couple little pockets of snow at over 10,000 feet elevation this summer, I was delighted. And yeah, I made snowballs. It was a blast.

Like I said, I had to hike quite a ways and to quite an altitude to find snow that late in the year, even in the mountains, due to the past couple of dry years…but it was definitely a mission accomplished.

Now? I’ve actually had enough snow for a while. It’s piled high and deep on all sides of my driveway, and I have some pretty good drifting across my property. I spent plenty of time staying ahead of this week’s storms, clearing the areas I need to clear in between waves of snow so it’s more manageable. But yeah, I’ve had enough fun for now. A White Christmas is guaranteed. Hopefully we can save any future significant snowfall for my next snowboarding trip!

So I understand we had some weather on Thursday. Well, I was roaming the back roads of Morton County but was able to see from a distance that there was some significant action going on in the skies northeast of our location.

Once I zoomed in on the tail end of the massive cloud formation I saw some pretty striking features.

Here’s a slightly closer crop. What really caught my eye was the ring around the top of the cloud, but once I grabbed a telephoto shot I also noticed some serious convection going on back there. Pretty wild!

On the way back into town we did pass a stretch – about a mile long – during which there were hailstones piled up on the east side of the road. Otherwise, I stayed dry all the way back to town, but for a few sprinkles after we passed St. Anthony. I was pleased to find out that there wasn’t any damage on my property once I got home. But I heard it was quite a show!