SkyPix

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

Serious Surge

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Even though this storm still was a supercell, with a well-developed and deep mesocyclone, it also heaved forth a prodigious mass of precipitation and outflow in every direction around that internal circulation.  Not often does one see a heavy-precip supercell in Wyoming; but this stage certainly qualified it as such.  The mesocyclone itself was hidden somewhere in the dark murk of precipitation … [Read more...]

Meteor through Milky Way

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I've never dabbled much in astrophotography, but this combination of phenomena caught my attention while finishing a loop drive on a rough, remote road:  a great view of the Milky Way (from a dark sky in the western Everglades) and Mie scattering of light from the small, unincorporated settlement of Monroe Station.  Mie scattering takes visible light (here, the orange light of sodium-vapor lamps … [Read more...]

Sunset out of Dodge

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Dodge City is well-known for its western shows; but the best one in town this day was the mammatus show in the western sky.  After seeing a tornado and flood in the Panhandles to the south, we celebrated our great storm-intercept fortune with a steak dinner in Dodge.  Next, we got out of Dodge—just a little way, so that our eyes could feast on this for sweet dessert! 6 WNW Dodge City KS (13 Jun … [Read more...]

Channing Enchantment

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This charming little supercell had looked potentially very severe from the distance, during its early lifespan, as seen from our northwestern approach via Clayton, NM.  However, as we wheeled around in front of it, the storm got walloped.  A big surge of outflow from a separate storm complex to the south crashed into the supercell, weakening it.  Still, the supercell's remains offered a beautiful … [Read more...]

Montana Tiers

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Multiple decks of cloud base festooned a strangely sculpted supercell over the High Plains of central Montana, north of the Judith Range.  This magnificent storm surfed its own outflow for several hours, producing a swath of severe hail and wind, and on a couple occasions when that outflow wasn’t surging as fast, very nearly a tornado. 5 WNW Brooks MT (10 Jun 16) Looking WNW 47.2265, -109.535 … [Read more...]

What the Dickens

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Quite large and long lived, this fat, low-slung wall cloud broadly rotated, but never could tighten its circulation to tornadic dimensions.  We eventually transected the south rim of this feature and noted only weak rear-flank downdraft (RFD) breezes and spits of rain.  More importantly, getting west of this storm (and of the entire line) allowed us eventually to notice and investigate a … [Read more...]