SkyPix

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

Montana Prairie Sentinel

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Outflow from the storm in the distant background rushed across the rolling Montana prairies, whipping the wildflowers to and fro, and offering us a cool breeze within which to enjoy the scenery.  The same outflow also acted as a source for lift, supporting development of this vigorous (but elevated) cluster of towering cumulus and cumulus congestus clouds.  We casually enjoyed this splendid view, … [Read more...]

Blue Sky Window

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Expectations of rampaging storms, marching across the Kansas High Plains in an armada of unseasonable September severity, drew us a few hundred miles northwestward.  One magical sunset and some splendid nocturnal lightning kept us there.  The storms developed about where and when I had expected, but stayed very small—so small in fact that several lined up in a row along the dryline.  Their narrow … [Read more...]

Weak Multivortex Tornado

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Shortly before this circulation formed, the storm had the typically high, roughly textured, broad base of a young supercell on Colorado's eastern High Plains, and was similar to many other storms I've seen in these parts.  In about a 15-minute span, a scuddy wall cloud formed, tapering and lowering its ragged form while steadily spinning stronger.  The cloud grew lower as air rose faster, thanks … [Read more...]

Flood in Plainview

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During and shortly after heavy thunderstorms, towns on flatter parts of the High Plains, with underdeveloped and/or clogged drainage infrastructure, will often experience street flooding for hours.   Such was the case on this late afternoon, with this flooding in very plain view.  It happened during a slow-moving, structurally ambiguous mess of an HP supercell that merged with other storms into a … [Read more...]

Wray Bands

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A Colorado High Plains supercell stretched itself out into an exquisitely elongated, banded form, liberally festooned with layers and laminar striations, as if participating in an atmospheric version of a contortionist circus.  This storm began over shallow but strong outflow from a previous supercell, paralleling the track of the earlier storm just to its east, and may have been elevated most or … [Read more...]

Clallam Log

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An ice cube in your summer drink basically has the same buoyancy as the iceberg that sank the Titanic.  A piece of the same waterlogged wood type has the same buoyancy in water, whether it is a puny piece of driftwood weighing an ounce or, like this enormous log, many tons.   That helps to explain why the log could be found at the same place on the beach as small flecks of driftwood, the main … [Read more...]