February 17, 2016 Highway 190 Desert Dust Storm and Lenticulars

Another winter storm system was headed to California, so instead of seeing what it might do from home, I elected to head to the northern deserts.  I again was hoping for some interesting lenticular cloud formations.  The desert flowers were in full bloom in Death Valley, also, so I was considering staying out there a second day to do the flower photography thing.

I headed north on Highway 14 through Mojave.  There wasn’t much happening yet, but I could see some cool-looking wave clouds way off to the north towards the Owens Valley.  That is what I wanted!  As I neared Olancha, it was looking quite nice, as large “Sierra wave” clouds were hanging over Owens Lake.  A cold front was moving into the Southern Sierra, and it was looking darker and darker to the north.  Dust was getting raised off of Owens Lake, and occasionally going into large “dust-devil” mode.  I went up to Lone Pine, but light rain began falling and the crest of the mountains was obscured.  Back to the southeast towards Keeler I headed, with a couple of stops to take in the view across the dry lake.

It was time to continue east “in front of the front” to see what sort of clouds might develop in and around the Panamint Valley.  The winds increased nicely on the Panamint Valley floor and the dust started blowing around. A handful of lenticulars began to look really good, too!  Up at Towne Pass, the winds were howling from the west, and some insane wave clouds were building to the south towards Telescope Peak.