David Blanchard
@davidblanchard
Atmospheric Scientist, Ph.D., CCM. Chased by storms since 1981. Trail running, mountain biking, skiing. Astro, weather, and landscape photographer. dblanchard.net/blog/
Did a mountain bike ride up Schultz Pass Road and down Schultz Creek Trail. The road is temporarily closed so no vehicle traffic. Some rain last night held down the dust. Still plenty of wildflowers. #mountainbike #landscape 📷
Nice band of storms moving off the higher terrain of the San Francisco Peaks and bringing rain to Flagstaff and Kachina Village. Hoping it will dump rain on the remnant hot spots of the Pocket Fire! #azwx #weather #monsoon2026
Lots of wildflowers appearing on the FUTS (Flagstaff Urban Trail System) north of Fort Tuthill. Captions in Alt Text. Sony RX10-IV. #wildflowers #flagstaff #landscape 📷
Well, well. Looks like the monsoon pattern has arrived in northern Arizona. Now we have to worry about dry lightning for a few days while the forest fuels slowly moisten. • Radar reflectivity • Storm total precipitation #azwx #weather #monsoon2026
Mesoscale convective system (MCS) over nrn Mexico last night sent out a visually impressive packet of gravity waves propagating to the west as seen in this GOES-18 water vapor loop. Monsoon moisture is now present across the srn part of AZ. Let the monsoon begin! #azwx #weather #monsoon2026
Very clear skies (the smoke is gone!) so a good opportunity to do a test shoot of the Milky Way with this lens (Tamron SP 35mm f/1.4 Di USD). Pretty good wide open at ƒ/1.4 and excellent at ƒ/2.8. Nikon D850, 35mm, ƒ/2.8, 243 seconds, ISO 200. Single image. #astrophotography
Did a run on a section of the Arizona Trail that travels through an area with numerous abandoned railroad lines that were built by the timber industry. This section of the AZT is located between Upper Lake Mary and Mormon Lake. #trailrunning #landscape 📷
A bit of sunset color on Tuesday evening. The summer monsoon hasn't started yet around here--but enough moisture to get a few cumuliform clouds. Next week... #azwx #landscape 📷
Trail run on the Arizona Trail between Snowbowl Road and Bismarck Lake. Wildflowers and ferns! Also smoke from the Pocket Fire. #trailrunning #wildflowers #landscape 📷
Trail run on Schultz Creek Trail on Thursday (~10K). Lots of variety in wildflowers along the trail. Details in Alt Text. #trailrunning #landscape 📷
Trail run today on Orbit--Apollo--Dipper--Spacewalk--Big Bang--Afterglow (note the theme?) and finished on Schultz. Clouds kept it cool. And some nice flowers. #trailrunning #flowerphotography
Did a trail run on Upper Oldham Trail in the Mount Elden-Dry Lakes (MEDL) area this morning. Was disappointed at the lack of wildflowers -- but there were some including the yellow and pink columbine and Firecracker penstamons. #trailrunning #flowerphotography
View of the smoke plume from the Pocket Fire between Sedona and Flagstaff as viewed from Elden Lookout Road at 0745 am this morning. #wildfire #Pocketfire
First quarter Moon last night. Nikon D850, 500mm, f/11, 1/250 seconds, ISO 200. #astrophotography
Did a trail run on Highlands Trail from SR89A to Kachina Wetlands. Saw some wildflowers that I haven't seen elsewhere this year. Nice. And got to see an osprey flying over the ponds. #trailrunning #landscape📷 #wildflowers
Wildflowers seen in my backyard and adjacent open space on Friday. Flower identification in Alt Text. #wildflowers #landscape 📷
Well...crap! Evacuations starting along FR 231 and along Oak Creek Canyon per radio traffic. The fire is listed at 100 acres per WildCAD. #wildfire
Parade of planets and the Moon from May 25 through June 20 at 2030 MST. The Moon is not to scale (4x normal). Images generated using Stellarium. My favorite evening was June 15 when the crescent Moon was 1.6% illuminated and below all the planets. #astrophotography
Did a trail run on Rogers Trail (formerly Rogers Lake Connector) and then up to the Woody Mountain Lookout. The LO is no longer staffed -- it has remote cameras instead. Not too many wildflowers but enough to keep me happy! #trailrunning #landscape 📷
A twilight image of the Moon and three planets (four if you count the landscape, Earth!). The Moon (12% crescent) is a bit overexposed in this image. Below the Moon are Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury. #astrophotography #landscape 📷
Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury are joined in the evening twilight sky by a thin crescent Moon (6% illuminated). Nikon D850, 35mm, f/5.6, ISO 64, 1.0 seconds. #astrophotography #landscape 📷
Lunar occultation of Venus. Mostly clear skies made it relatively easy to spot the Moon and Venus. Composite of two images at the beginning and end. Nikon D850, 500mm, f/11, ISO 64, 1/125 second. #astrophotography
Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury are joined in the evening twilight sky by a thin crescent Moon (1.5% illuminated). Tomorrow the Moon will be positioned between Mercury and Jupiter and will be ~6% illuminated. Nikon D850, 35mm, f/5.6, ISO 64, 1.0 seconds. #astrophotography #landscape 📷
Composite from 4 nights showing the relative positions of Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury. In the composite, Jupiter was held fixed while the others were allowed to shift. All images were taken from the same location at Lake Mary near Flagstaff, Arizona. #astrophotography #landscape 📷