SkyPix

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

Thick Altocumulus Undulatus

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One of the most outstanding, striking and captivating examples of altocumulus undulatus I've seen was from the street in front of my house, while arriving home from a night shift.  This thick grouping of them sped quickly across the southwestern sky under northwesterly flow aloft, meaning they moved fast from right to left, and were gone within minutes.  A couple of the convective turrets that … [Read more...]

Crescent Sun Setting

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After a captivating annular eclipse, festooned upon finish by Baily's beads, the departing moon left us with a setting crescent sun, a rare photo, and a unique memory.   Among all the amazing moments I've spent on the Great Plains, most of them involving convective storms in some fashion, this sunset along the Texas/New Mexico border was among the most bedazzling and incomparable.  To say this was … [Read more...]

Altostratus Undulatus Asperatus

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In the 2000s, these sharply defined undulations to altostratus formations took on a new name in the cloud-watching community, asperatus, derived from a Latin verb meaning "to make rough".  [The International Cloud Atlas curiously dubbed these "asperitas" in March 2017; I choose to stick with the original name.]  They occur most often in areas of elevated low-level warm advection, atop a relatively … [Read more...]

Reflection Lake with Mt. Rainier

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The shallow waters of Reflection Lake perform as advertised, mostly with the dark coniferous forest in front of Mt. Rainier.  "Postcard" views of Mt. Rainier like this are surprisingly common on a fair day, from many vantages around the massive, glacier-capped volcano, but are no less beautiful and inspiring.  We had awakened early to photograph (and more importantly, experience) dawn across … [Read more...]

Among the Tall Towers

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Flying past some weak-shear convection between Oklahoma City and Las Vegas, I didn't expect anything particularly photogenic.  Wrong!  This marvelous and admittedly fortuitous compositional juxtaposition came and went quickly.  I was amazed by the nearly vertical east walls of the towers, afforded by that weak shear, and the way the nearby Cb frames its complementary tower with low clouds below, … [Read more...]

Mound Sun

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At the end of another fine day on the beach, our familiar golden globe of flowing gas rotates below the horizon, with a peculiar flattening apparition on its limbs giving it a mounded shape.  The cause?  An inversion layer, similar to those that caused the "Balloon Sun" three days later or a flat-sun feature 24 hours earlier at the same spot, also bent enough sunlight aside to yield this … [Read more...]