SkyPix

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

Milk River Rampage

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A heavy-precipitation (HP) supercell just had been overtaken by the southern portion of a squall line, but retained its strong midlevel rotation, keeping it a line-embedded supercell fronted by an accelerating wall of wind and hail.  The resulting storm rampaged southeastward down the Milk River Valley of northern Montana at highway speeds of 60 mph or more.  Though even a brief stop would allow … [Read more...]

Dusty Supercell with “Ring of Saturn”

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Beauty, or ugliness, is in the eye of the beholder, especially when it comes to cloud forms.  In this case, I'd call it both, rendering a weird and somewhat otherworldly sky unlike any I've seen in a very long time.  The supercell started out high-based, its outflow strong enough to loft countless thousands of tons of openly exposed, west Texas topsoil, its inflow slowly growing intense enough to … [Read more...]

Icy Variety

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This was a wondrous assortment of freshly fallen hail in one place, the only addition being the knobby, nearly 2-inch-diameter piece from merely a couple feet to the right of the view.  Sizes ranged from less than pea sized to hailstones about half an inch larger than the measured specimen, based on a few others I noticed later.  It's fascinating to contemplate the multitude of processes, … [Read more...]

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...]