SkyPix

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

Shelfie Six Pack: Blue-Hour Appearance

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[Part 1 of 6] Strong convective gust fronts in the sunrise hour can yield spectacular shelf clouds, as they force lift of boundary-layer air that is optimally stabilized by a nighttime of cooling.  This can yield some wild and weird visual effects, especially in the "blue hour" of early twilight.  With trees blocking the view of the horizon, and of the underside of the arcus, the cloud formation … [Read more...]

Sunset at Home

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Sometimes one need not wander for miles or hours afield to experience the wonder of a grand sky.  The brightest, most richly colored part of this evening's sundown show conveniently lit a well-placed, between-trees section of residual anvil clouds from a dissipated storm to the west.  We could enjoy the scene by stepping about as far as the edge of the garage door. Norman OK (29 Jul 20) Looking … [Read more...]

Bad Sky in the Badlands

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[Part 2 of 2]  As this small segment of the 2020 Great Western Derecho struck, a wall of verifiably severe wind roared up the Badlands from the lower Plains below, further accelerating the intense blast up the bluffs.  This was the last shot before I ran the hundred feet or so back to my vehicle, threw my gear onto car-camping bedding and pillows in the back, and pointed the front into the wind.   … [Read more...]

Rotation Undercut

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This large, wet, ragged wall cloud rotated strongly for several minutes, and I was watching very closely for signs of a developing tornado that ultimately never happened.  Convergence was quite pronounced at the center of rotation, to the left of the highway and at lower middle of the photo.   However, outflow soon would shoot under the mesocyclone as it surged rightward to just a mile from me on … [Read more...]

Destiny of the Abandoned

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Back into the Sandhills, in a hidden valley a few miles from the highway, the long-ago products of homesteaders' hopes and dreams decays and slumps over, board by board, nail by nail, year by year, destined to disappear into the grassy sands.   One of the reasons is epitomized by the background storm:  a severe, rear-flank core and gust front trailing a heavy-precipitation supercell.   Combine … [Read more...]

Rotation Incoming

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This fast-approaching wall cloud came from a supercell that already had spun up a brief, small tornado just over the state line, in Kansas.  Now in Nebraska, and even deeper into large hodographs within a warm-frontal zone, I was confident a tornado could form any time.  This wall cloud rotated rather rapidly, with occasional, very short-lived chunks of scud shooting up from behind the trees.  … [Read more...]