SkyPix

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

Little but Lively

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Rotating with a fervor I seldom had witnessed before in my young life, this small, scuddy and tightly circulating wall cloud looked and acted like it was going to produce a tornado any second.  The elongated scud chunk to its lower left formed, rose helically and merged up into the wall cloud, all in less than 10 seconds.  Alas, it was the late 1980s in Oklahoma, and the tornado simply refused to … [Read more...]

Future Fossils?

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Hail landed in the mud and melted about 18 hours before this photo, leaving well-defined impressions which quite accurately documented the size of the hailstones.  This sort of record, when available, certainly beats the usual overestimates of hail size provided by excited spotters who seldom witness (and even more seldom measure) large hail.  Perhaps, somewhere in the world, semi-spheric cavities … [Read more...]

Sturdy but Sideways

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Across the Great Plains, many small structures are built sturdily, but are either poorly attached to their foundations or utterly unanchored.  Then a severe wind hits, and all that good workmanship which went into the building is wasted!  This is a great example from the north side of the Haysville-Wichita tornado of 16 May 1991, which I had witnessed.  Although parts of one wall and the roof … [Read more...]

Tempestuous Direction

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An electrically prolific squall line, evolved from a Caprock supercell, continued to spark as its gust front rolled over the Low Rolling Plains of northwest Texas.  Soon darkness would set in, and the northern part of this convection would become a severe wind-producing complex over western and central Oklahoma—on my way home, of course.  That made for an adventuresome return in the dust, wind and … [Read more...]

Nimbostratus

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I have seen many dark stormscapes in my hundreds of storm intercepts during adulthood, and as a child in Dallas with eyes attracted to atmospheric violence.  Wicked skies always have mesmerized and energized me; but this scene was so menacing, so ominous, that it rates in the top two or three of a lifetime.  We were fortunate enough to be in just the right place and time to photograph it, on I-44 … [Read more...]

Hailstone Structure Assortment

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An assortment of hailstone sizes and shapes, as well as internal structures, could be gathered quickly from adjoining grass, immediately following the passage of a rain-wrapped, embedded supercell at this location.  Unlike the pavement upon which the hail sits, the grass insulated the hail to some extent, slowing the melting process.  Concentric rings of different opacities reveal growth layers as … [Read more...]