SkyPix

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

Tornado-Shaped Electricity

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Beyond what I dubbed "Lightning Highway", on a magically electrified and unforgettable Arizona night, yet another core breezed by and blasted sparks across the vertical and horizontal miles.  These two, which flashed before the core's near side and illuminated it nicely, happened to form the two-dimensional shape of a tornado from my perspective, thereby imaginatively combining the forms of two of … [Read more...]

Spotlit Sunset Haboob

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For just a fleeting moment, a shaft of the day's last sunlight streamed through a gap in clouds to the west, shining directly onto the apex of a haboob.  Blasting westward through the Tucson metro area, this outflow-driven slab of dust made a miserable experience for anyone caught outside, with its choking grit and hazardously low visibility.   Out here, it offered a beautiful spectacle as the … [Read more...]

State Line Sparkler

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Having encountered little more than junky, non-photogenic convection farther northwest and closer to Denver, and with the next day's potential somewhere over the southern Panhandle, I had to head southeast anyway.  While enroute, severe thunderstorms formed to my southeast over Baca County, and I caught up to them around sunset as they clustered up into a mess.  Still, this fuzzy yet still … [Read more...]

Wild Water on the Border River

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Crashing over rugged basalt cliffs, the booming churn of the Pigeon River obscures that imaginary line somewhere inside, marking the Ontario/Minnesota (Canada/U.S.) border.  Seen here from the better vantage on the Canadian side, the rugged basalt cliffs and blocks rip the water into a tempestuous froth of drops, spray and wildly gyrating splashes.  This paints a refreshing mental image on a hot … [Read more...]

Wall Cloud, Not Tornado!

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Glancing at this still image looking northwest, with no sense of motion, one may surmise this as a ragged-looking tornado; after all, it's in about the right place:  the inflow notch of a supercell, the main updraft and likely low/middle-level mesocyclone area, immediately upshear from the forward-flank tail cloud at right.   In fact, it was a very slowly rotating wall cloud, mostly rising in … [Read more...]

Tucson Funnel

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Surprise!  While fueling up at a south Tucson gas station, I happened to glance at a nearby, ragged, high thunderstorm base through a slot between the awning and store building.  Lo and behold:  a nub funnel cloud appeared—rotating as a true funnel must, albeit slowly.  The cyclonic, non-supercell funnel gradually lengthened into a cone and persisted for a few minutes.  That was just long enough … [Read more...]