SkyPix

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

Las Cruces Haboob

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This is one of the spookiest, most striking sky scenes I've witnessed outside menacing supercells.  Dust and sand roared out of the Organ Mountains and Tularosa Valley region into the Las Cruces area, shoved along by severe thunderstorm outflow that readily lofted still more.  Meanwhile, the lift was so intense that dust merged into and surrounded some shelfy cumulus clouds being formed by ascent, … [Read more...]

Outflow Platters

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A series of platter-shaped outflow clouds—the nearest having a striking texture and form reminiscent of alien spaceships—developed as a discretely propagating arc of convection, that had produced a minor haboob over the Phoenix area, worked south across low mountains, into the desert valley near Gila Bend.  Strange, high-based variants of shelf clouds seem more common in desert or semi-desert … [Read more...]

Blast into the Grand Canyon

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Receding away from the viewer with height, disappearing ghostly into a dense rain core, this twilight blast struck the bottom part of a natural amphitheater in the Grand Canyon.  It proves that the tallest area is not always the top target for lightning!  Alternative channels (the dimmer forks) simply didn’t connect to ground charge before the bright one.  This flash made true a longstanding dream … [Read more...]

Furious Forks

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For about 15 minutes, this section of a line of storms produced a wickedly brilliant barrage of forked, cloud-to-ground strikes ahead of the main precipitation area, as it interacted with a fresh outflow boundary and evolved into an embedded supercell.   The step-leader branch that didn't quite make it to the ground (at left) was lit nicely by electricity that had surged up through the branch that … [Read more...]

Emergent Blum Tornado

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My first view of the Blum tornado was this:  a fat, tapered, rain-wrapped cone emerging from dense precip obscuration, in an old mesocyclone.  How long had this tornado existed before?  Even after the fact, it's hard to say, as in its early life cycle, there was little to damage.  I reported this to NWS Fort Worth right away, upon recognizing and gaining confidence in what this was.  The tornado … [Read more...]

Margerie Glacier Reflective

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Ice floes dot Glacier Bay from several sources, especially the tidal Margerie Glacier.  Ice flows thousands of feet downhill to this place, where it slowly calves off, rafts off and melts off.   The middle part of the glacial wall was quite fascinating and photogenic in its own right as we approached. 76 NW Hoonah AK (31 Jul 3) Looking SSE 59.044, -137.0409 … [Read more...]