SkyPix

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

High Plains Supercell Masterpiece

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A promising young storm rolled east-southeastward over the High Plains and into the golden hour, growing more spectacular by the minute.  Had this supremely beautiful supercell stopped its dazzling evolution in this moment and place, then utterly vanished, this would have been "structure of the year" for me, in quite a good year for it.  However, just when one could have supposed the artistry of … [Read more...]

One Kilauea Sunrise

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Of all the sunrises and sunsets I’ve seen, this was the most fully irreproducible:  A nearly 1,000-foot volcanic fountain aglow, sending lava across the caldera floor, below a deep-convective column 20 times its height.  The plume thrust upward then downwind with purpose, well into the rays of both the rising sun and the south Hawaii Island radar.  A peculiar spike at right, made of the … [Read more...]

Thunderous Turquoise

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Skies like this are stunning in their form and tone, but mean something decidedly unseemly in that deep, dark and swirling world "in there."  We had witnessed a less rain-wrapped stage of this storm, knew it could mean trouble, and barely managed to catch back up.  On the opposite side of the big, messy supercell, near Munday at this time, a mesocyclone unleashed a measured, 106-mph gust west of … [Read more...]

Smoke on the Water

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Welcome to the first and rarest juxtaposition of two SkyPix categories:  Burnscapes and Water Works.  If this looks like a grim scene, it was.  Smoke from several devastating regional and local wildfires, mixed with blowing dust raised off west Texas and New Mexico by the same high winds that fanned the flames, finally settled into the near-sunset inversion layer over Lake Thunderbird.  Itself … [Read more...]

Sunset of the Southern Plains

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Flaming brilliance brightened the west aloft for just a few minutes one late fall evening, not just over central Oklahoma, but much of the southern Plains, thanks to an extensive deck of richly textured, variably thick cirrus.  These moments are the little snacks of priceless sky time that satisfy the appreciative yet hungry observer riding the long timeline from smorgasbord to smorgasbord on the … [Read more...]

Requiem for Homestead and Storm

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Moving into stable air mostly not of its own making, a dying storm recedes southeastward, with a double rainbow above a long-abandoned High Plains homestead.  Here stopped to say goodbye to a storm that nearly became a sustained supercell, but couldn't, await another storm that was becoming supercellular to the west-northwest, and pay respects to a culture and generation as long gone as the house … [Read more...]