SkyPix

A digital photographic storybook of clouds, weather and water by Roger Edwards.

Sunset Cirrus

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Clean boundary-layer air behind a front in January 2000 allowed the vivid blue-red contrasts in this sunset to stand out sharply.  Contrary to popular belief, pollution yields dimmer, blurrier and less colorful sunsets because of light blockage and diffusion by particle components of haze.  So the optimal weather for good sunrise and sunset photos is when the boundary layer is at its cleanest.  In … [Read more...]

Multiple Branching Strikes

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On this night, forked CGs were flying with reckless abandon from one part of a cluster of elevated thunderstorms in southern Oklahoma.  This pair had some of the most prolific branching I had seen, with the possible exception of another wild CG tandem a few minutes earlier.  The top of the stroke at right even has some upward forks—my only film slide of a CG flash bookended by upward and … [Read more...]

Woodsy Sunrise

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Morning after another nasty Southeastern tornado event dawned beautifully in Norman, reflected on one of the small local ponds.  Shots past the Sunrise Tree (middle right) work best in winter; between late March and late September, the brightest colors typically are too far north in the morning sky for good compositions here in the warm season.  Usually, trees here make a good suit of new leaves … [Read more...]

Tail-End Shelf

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The southern fringe of a short, north-south squall line produced a nice shelf cloud in the twilight, compelling a quick photo stop after the end of the active portion of the chase day.  On this day, the end of the chase came before I saw the earlier distant tornado!  While limping my mud-caked vehicle back toward Childress for a more-thorough hosing, I passed under a backbuilding convective band … [Read more...]

Wall Cloud after Sunset

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Just because it was past peak, in terms of color, doesn't mean the Childress wall cloud of 2001 still wasn't amazing to witness.  Now largely silhouetted against reddened light that very soon would vanish, the base lowered and rotated slowly, never producing what would have been a most interesting tornado to shoot on slide film.  The thick tail cloud briefly converged quickly into the main … [Read more...]