SkyPix

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

Moist Twilight in the Grand Canyon

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After one round of late-afternoon/sunset storms passed, and shortly before another that always will warm my memories, so will this comfortingly unusual sky.   Both altostratus above, and foggy stratus and scud from my level on down, very briefly caught filtered sunset light, sandwiching the shadowed backdrop of the early "blue hour".  Cool and damp, wondrously freshened by the scent of moist … [Read more...]

K-H Waves with Fall Colors

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Regularly spaced, angular mounds, created by Kelvin-Helmholtz wave action, rippled atop a stratus deck that accompanied an approaching cold front.  The frontal stratus deck soon would come into view from higher ground as a sharply defined, beautifully angular arcus cloud, albeit without the K-H formations atop.  To make the change in scenery, I just had to trade campus fall-foliage foreground for … [Read more...]

Double Downbursts

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While one "Arizona Mountain Downburst" (left) still was raging on and moving southward, another at right unloaded in a heavy way.  The sharpness of the rain cores loosely mimicked wedge tornadoes, and I say "loosely" loosely.  No doubt many who got the rain welcomed it, even with the sporadic flash flooding in the rugged terrain.  Within less than half an hour, cloud bases from these all the way … [Read more...]

Sycamore Seedball Sunset

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Damaged badly in October of the previous year by an early-season ice storm, one of our sycamores recovered and regrew enough to offer a nice collection of their hard, rough seedballs for the following season, here silhouetted in yet another beautiful central Oklahoma sunset display.  Between these and the spiked version offered by two nearby sweetgums, a barefoot stroll around the backyard isn't … [Read more...]

Mountain Sparks through Dust

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This shot has a dusty hue for good reason.  The rather uncommon coloration for a twilight lightning image can be attributed to a big pall of dust, from the same haboob that earlier yielded great sunset colors and photogenic dust plumes, and now was whipping the hardy desert scrub hither and yon in the wind.  One positive side effect of having a pandemic facemask supply aboard was using one to … [Read more...]

Supercellular Hatch

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Looming over low mountains across the Rio Grande from Hatch, NM, this peppy little southward-moving supercell spun for about an hour before being overtaken by outflow-dominant convection farther northeast.  Wait, what?  A supercell in southern New Mexico in mid July?  You bet!   Though flow aloft wasn't especially strong, a dominant northerly component atop southerly surface flow (and enhanced … [Read more...]