SkyPix

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

Blue Hour at Nara Visa

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Remnants of an early twilight supercell northeast of town rolled southeast, merging into a larger aggregation of cells, but keeping a dominant cloud and electrical structure for awhile yet.  In this short time exposure, the main storm continued to shift away, but blasted a contorted flash across its midsection that appeared to possess an abstract expressionist's idea of head, arms and legs.  The … [Read more...]

Ocean Silhouette: Hawaiian Palms

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In an Aloha State golden hour, the low sun reflects off countless gentle Pacific ripples, silhouetting in shimmering sepia this grove of palms that rises from a stark, craggy, volcanic seashore of a'a lava.  I came to this spot not even knowing of the palms, looking merely for a high vantage for a sunset that turned out nice, but not quite the unique composition this offered.  The lesson:  … [Read more...]

Continued Westward Retreat

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Shriveling wall cloud, shrinking tornado, and a mesocyclone with an expiration time measured in double-digit seconds:  all retreated further westward from the Union City area, sparing the town from any path of destruction on this strange supercellular night.  Very soon, this tornado would undergo a contorted rope-out over open land. 2 NNE Minco OK (19 May 24) Looking NW 35.3393, -97.9337 … [Read more...]

Golden Rain

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This is why it's called the "golden hour."  That last window of time before sunset, and before a distant yet still-unseen thunderstorm shadowed the entire scene, yielded a cool, gold rain on the back side of what had been a long-lasting storm and its newly joined larger complex.  As seen from less than half a mile down the same road, the front side was quite remarkable too! 1 ESE Vera TX (8 Jun … [Read more...]

Volcanic Fountain and Vortex

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Kilauea’s 2024–2025 eruption sequence featured numerous, cyclic, roaring fountains in the southwest part of the summit caldera’s Halemaumau crater, some of which produced the highest fountains near the summit since the 1959 eruption in the Iki crater about 2-1/2 miles away.  Witnessing Episode 33 of this eruption realized a lifelong dream for me, with spectacular sights and sounds straddling … [Read more...]

Ominously Nontornadic

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A very large, strongly rotating wall cloud could not tighten up enough to produce a tornado.  This mesocyclone cycle ultimately would be undercut by its own rear-flank downdraft.   The supercell's underside was so dark partly because it was deep and strongly precip-loaded, but also, because other cells were forming immediately to the southwest and casing progressively thicker anvil material over … [Read more...]