Autumn Rain at Great Falls

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Rain and clouds at Great Falls Saturday while the fall foliage approaches peak color.

The weather for this past weekend was split. Saturday was quite rainy and mild ahead of a cold front while the weather behind the front, on Sunday, was sunny and quite cool. Against my better judgment, I decided to shoot Great Falls in the rain on Saturday and not wait for the beautiful weather on Sunday. The idea was to contrast the bright colors of fall foliage against a black and white background of clouds and rain. Besides, this is a weather blog so I try to get out and shoot in all types of weather, not just on nice days.

Keep reading for more views, including a panorama of Great Falls.

Rain and mild temperatures at Great Falls Saturday. At times, the wind blew the rain sideways through the narrow Mather Gorge.

It was a bit challenging to photograph with an umbrella over the camera and tripod as the wind swirled rain sideways onto my camera. My camera ended up getting soaked and I only photographed for about 15 minutes, just long enough to be satisfied that I captured a good sample of the rainy scenes at Great Falls. During that short time, I was treated to very interesting scene, a guy going over Great Falls in a kayak. I took a photo sequence, but that will be for the next photo post. Stay tuned...

The view of the Potomac River, looking down stream from Great Falls.

A panoramic view of Great Falls with clouds and rain.

A red oak tree gets soaked by rain on Saturday at Great Falls. Oak trees turn color later in autumn than maple trees. This tree has a nice mix of both red and green leaves.