SkyPix

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

Wild Arcus Colors and Textures

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A deep, strong cold pool from a well-organized bow echo forced layers of air upward, quickly, in the near-sunset "magic hour".  While the direct sunlight was blocked by miles and miles of clouds and precipitation, indirect (yet still atmospherically reddened) "backlight" from the east helped to paint the upper sides of the arcus layers in a peculiar hue of beige/tan that I've seen before in such … [Read more...]

No Ord-inary Sunset

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This was a fine end to a long day!   Rotating the circadian sleep/wake rhythm forward off a set of 15 straight night shifts, I was able to leave central Oklahoma early enough in the morning to find some pretty storms in the Nebraska Sandhills during the afternoon.  Those, in turn, evolved into a cluster that included a photogenic heavy-precip supercell.   By the time the entire area of convection … [Read more...]

Elyria Wind

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The heavy-precipitation supercell known as the "Spiky Deck" storm proceeded southeastward, absorbing some smaller cells and producing a good deal of outflow.  As it moved into a slowly stabilizing yet still-moist air mass, shortly before sunset, lift of that air into the storm led to some wondrously layered formations above the small shelf cloud.  Late afternoon into evening is prime time for such … [Read more...]

Strange Supercell Sky

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One in a series of mostly weak, poorly structured supercells embedded in a convective line, this storm sported a wild, laminar, somewhat chevron-shaped cloud deck above the main convective updraft area.  The odd cloud form reminded me loosely of a storm I had seen near the Texas Caprock the year before that looked like a winged alien spacecraft.  I was fortunate to catch one of the storm's … [Read more...]

The Beauty of Atmospheric Violence

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For many years, I've presented a recurring slideshow with this name at the Severe Local Storms Conference, offering beautiful images from often violent weather.  This scene truly epitomized the title.  A strongly tilted supercell with sunset-illuminated wall cloud and wrapping, rear-flank precipitation field receded rather quickly, tossing strong outflow across these center-pivoted cornfields and … [Read more...]

Storm-Struck Stone Walls

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Storms aplenty have battered this relic of High Plains homesteading, from wintertime blizzards, to downburst-dumping summertime thunderstorms, to hail-flinging warm-season supercells such as the one in the background (that nearly spawned a tornado earlier).  Out in this harsh, unforgiving, dryland agricultural environment, a high fraction of storms that can produce enough rain to make crops … [Read more...]