SkyPix

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

A Superior Beach

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Bright tan-orange sand (from nearby outcrops of Precambrian Jacobsville sandstone) contrasted nicely with the clean blue waters of Lake Superior, and a soft blue sky brushed by streets of stratus.  The morning had dawned cool and overcast.  This hole in the stratus deck formed in late morning and expanded throughout midday, as solar heating and boundary-layer mixing over land—some of which … [Read more...]

Dover Duster

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The early-stage Dover tornado began to organize better, whipping up a frothy column of slightly wettened dust as it crossed a plowed field where light to moderate rain had fallen briefly.  The bottom of the young vortex twirled slightly more than a mile away at this time, faintly audible as a distant waterfall noise, located to the southwest yet zipping along mostly eastward.  In this strongly … [Read more...]

Painted Mackinaw Sky

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Just after sunset, the deepening blue sky and some high, rosy cirrus painted serene summer scene above the Straits of Mackinac.  Even in a a benign weather situation, the sky still can change dramatically after a few short minutes, and with the aid of a swap of lenses, can provide a strikingly different look in a subset of the same scene. Mackinaw City MI (17 Jul 7) Looking NNW 45.788, -84.7294 … [Read more...]

Early-Stage Cone and Satellite Funnel

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A well-structured, autumnal supercell developed a strong area of spin in the lowest part of its updraft area, which gradually intensified into a tornado as it moved closer.  This was in the first several seconds of the confirmed tornado, with rotating dust beneath.  That wasn't all; I almost had a satellite tornado spin up even closer!  The funnel at right rotated briefly but tightly.  I watched … [Read more...]

Superior Shore at Knife River

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Gentle summertime waters belie their fierce pounding of the shoreline amidst “the gales of November”, smoothing the Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks, and depositing big logs such as this.  In the distance, soft but pretty cumulonimbi, that formed over a moist and diurnally heated landscape, weaken as they cross over the cold, stable boundary layer of Lake Superior. Knife River MN (11 Jul … [Read more...]

Cumulonimbus Lenticularis (A Cloud-Name Proposal)

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In twilight, with a tight aperture and 5–10-second exposures, it is possible to take photos such as this one of a CG stroke behind a lenticular cloud.  The origin of the lenticular cloud was not a mountain or standing wave.  Instead, it was the detached former base of a dying, high-based supercell—still slowly rotating!  Because of its deep-convective origin, I propose a new cloud type: … [Read more...]