This mushroom-cloud-like behemoth is one of the year’s first thunderstorms for the area. A series of them moved through this past Wednesday and Thursday, bringing some solid rainfall and a handful of tornadoes. Here in Fayetteville, the storms seemed oddly fractured; I could see this cell just to the south and another to the north, while my apartment complex stayed completely dry. Tornado season has made its entrance.

This first salvo came just as northwest Arkansas’ individual tornado season starts; according to a nifty website called the Tornado History Project, about half of Washington and Benton counties’ tornadoes in the past 65 years happened in either April or May. I’m working on a story now about the area’s history and vulnerability with twisters; apparently Fayetteville has a bit of a local belief that the town’s immune to tornadoes thanks to its hilly terrain. Lincoln, Nebraska, has that myth, too. We’ll see how true it ends up being here.

On the positive side, the storms also mean spring is here for real, dang it. I had to remind myself this week we’re finally past the slips back below freezing. Let me find some wood to knock on.

I went down to our capital for the first time Thursday for work. Little Rock’s like a mix of Lincoln and Omaha. The weather was mostly a flat gray, and I don’t have much to show for the visit as far as images, but the day started with one beautiful sunrise.

One last thing: a crescent Moon and Venus passed near each other in the sky a week ago, a nice bookend to a similar alignment between the Moon and Jupiter back in February. A little reminder to keep looking up.

Thanks for looking,

Dan