Sometimes, the most amazing sunsets are the most unexpected. This was a repositioning day from prior days in northern New Mexico, eastern Colorado and western Kansas, to predicted supercell potential the next few in western South Dakota. While on the way to Chadron for the night, I had pulled off here to loosen the legs a bit for the stretch run, and in hopes of a deck of altocumulus clouds catching some pretty sunset light. Those dispersed too soon, and these clouds were dark and slate-gray, seeming to block the sun. I mostly packed the gear and was about a minute from driving off, when faint orange appeared under these, through an unseen gap below the visible horizon. Within just a few more minutes, the western sky transformed into a blazing, brilliant show of gold, orange and intervening blues, textured fantastically by the same clouds I had reviled as drab shadow makers only a short while prior. Not only that, a rare warm-season sun pillar appeared! It was as if a voice from above was lecturing, “Patience, my son,” while offering a gorgeous reason why. It was a lesson well heeded.
