Arizona Storm Damage
October 21 and November 4, 2010

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If a tornado rips down hundreds of trees in the forest, but there is nobody there to hear it, does it make a sound?

As I was exploring forest roads above the Mogollon Rim on Thursday, October 21, I found an area where many of the trees had been broken off or knocked over.

Mogollon Rim, October 21, 2010 The trees had not been cut down. They were snapped off.

Mogollon Rim, October 21, 2010

Mogollon Rim, October 21, 2010 Something very powerful had splintered the wood of the trees.

Mogollon Rim, October 21, 2010 Some of the trees had snapped off a few dozen feet above the ground.

Mogollon Rim, October 21, 2010 The wood was still pliable and the needles were green and fresh. Not far away, other trees were undamaged.

Mogollon Rim, October 21, 2010 In places, the ground was covered in tree turnks and branches.

Mogollon Rim, October 21, 2010 Fifteen days earlier a very powerful storm had spawned a number of tornadoes across Arizona. This was where one of those tornadoes had touched down. It left a string of holes in the forest canopy across nearly twenty mniles.

Mogollon Rim, October 21, 2010

Mogollon Rim, October 21, 2010 The damage from the tornado has a sharp edge. Just a short distance from destroyed trees a large dead snag stands undamaged.

Mogollon Rim, October 21, 2010

Mogollon Rim, October 21, 2010

Mogollon Rim, October 21, 2010 Some of the trees fell over, pulling their root balls out of the ground.

Mogollon Rim, October 21, 2010

Mogollon Rim, October 21, 2010

Mogollon Rim, October 21, 2010 Many of the trees snapped part way through and then peeled away down the trunk.

Mogollon Rim, October 21, 2010

Mogollon Rim, October 21, 2010

Mogollon Rim, October 21, 2010

Mogollon Rim, October 21, 2010

Mogollon Rim, October 21, 2010 The wind stripped the bark from some trunks.

Mogollon Rim, October 21, 2010 This tree knocked a large boulder down the slope. There was almost no storm damage on the far side of the road. The road passed through another extensive area with fallen trees about a mile away.



I returned to the Coconino Forest above the Mogollon Rim on Thursday, November 4 to photograph more of the tornado damage.

Panorama size: 1424 megapixels (50008 x 28492 pixels)
Input images: 440 (22 columns by 20 rows)
Field of view: 252.7 degrees wide by 143.9 degrees high (top=87.5, bottom=-56.5)Panorama size: 1240 megapixels (40620 x 30544 pixels)

Mogollon Rim, November 4, 2010

Photography Prints This photo is available as prints as large as four feet by six feet.

Panorama size: 1194 megapixels (46212 x 25852 pixels)
Input images: 360 (20 columns by 18 rows)
Field of view: 233.7 degrees wide by 130.7 degrees high (top=78.3, bottom=-52.5)Panorama size: 1424 megapixels (50008 x 28492 pixels)

Mogollon Rim, November 4, 2010

Mogollon Rim, November 4, 2010

Mogollon Rim, November 4, 2010

Mogollon Rim, November 4, 2010

Mogollon Rim, November 4, 2010

Mogollon Rim, November 4, 2010

Mogollon Rim, November 4, 2010

Mogollon Rim, November 4, 2010

Mogollon Rim, November 4, 2010

Mogollon Rim, November 4, 2010

Mogollon Rim, November 4, 2010

Mogollon Rim, November 4, 2010

Mogollon Rim, November 4, 2010

Mogollon Rim, November 4, 2010

Mogollon Rim, November 4, 2010

Mogollon Rim, November 4, 2010

Mogollon Rim, November 4, 2010

Mogollon Rim, November 4, 2010

Mogollon Rim, November 4, 2010



Mogollon Rim, October 21, 2010 Earlier that day, I toured the Mogollon Rim near Payson, Arizona to photograph the fall colors. I followed the Rim Road and other forest roads from Woods Canyon Lake to Highway 87 north of Strawberry. The weather was overcast and it rained intermittently.


More Mogollon Rim displays

Mogollon Rim, Arizona The Mogollon Rim marks the southern boundary of the Colorado Plateau. It rises neraly 2,000 feet above the region to the south.



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