Northern Lights over the US, Italy Waterspout, Snow in Colorado, Hurricane Rina!

On Monday night, one of the most spectacular northern lights displays (especially for myself) happened across the US, anywhere from Wisconsin to Del Rio, Texas!  It was sparked by a CME (coronal mass ejection) that weakened earth's magnetic field and sparked a nice Aurora Borealis show across the United States.  Visually, to the naked eye (from the Kansas City suburbs), I could only see the majestic red "wave" for about 5-10 minutes, but my camera picked up the red and green glows for a good 30 minutes afterwords.  Due to no tripod, I was only able to capture them on my car roof and they didn't turn out as well as I've liked.
Instead, I'm showcasing fellow storm chaser and "king of storm photography", Mike Hollingshead's stunning capture of the event (left) near Blair, Nebraska during the peak intensity.  Mike really has a niche for storm photography and has been a huge influence on my own personal photography--he's nothing short of humble and a nice guy as well.  Be sure to check out his account of this event, which hasn't reached this far south since December of 2006!

On Tuesday, Extreme Tornado Tour's Olivier Stagier and swiss meteorologist, Dean Gill, had an exciting afternoon where they drove all morning to Northwest Italy, where a powerful system was affecting the area.  In the Cinque Terre area in Liguria, between Portofino and La Spezia and near the coastal town of Riomaggiore, they saw the formation of an intense waterspout!  This system was responsible for killer floods which destroyed homes and closed down interstates and railways.  Stay tuned for the video of this amazing video!

From record highs in the 80's, to over a foot of snow in some places, Colorado has seen its wild swing of weather already this week!  On average, Colorado only receives about 4 inches of snow in October, but some places have easily surpassed that.  The snow, wet and heavy, on the fall branches, was responsible for numerous power outages in the Denver metro area.  1-2 inches of snow is also possible tonight in the western Texas Panhandle, where a winter weather advisory is out until morning.  This area needs all of the moisture they can get due to the extreme drought conditions.

Hurricane Rita is currently at a Category 1 with winds of 85 mph sustained and is located about 120 miles south of Cozumel, Mexico and is expected to reach the eastern coast of the Yucatan Penninsula.  She should maintain hurricane strength but a gradual weakening tonight and into Friday is expected.  Stay tuned to TVN for the latest!