SkyPix

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

On Frigid Pond

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Even on a dark, cold day after a snowstorm, under a deep stratus overcast, beauty abounds in the calm and solitude of the deep chill.  The trees sagged with resignation to the weight of ice that accumulated before the snow fell.  Every few minutes, they seemed to groan in misery—a sound actually spawned by mechanical stresses in the ice, as winds swayed the branches.  One thing is certain:  loud … [Read more...]

Chocolate Mammatus in Twilight

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Amazing scenes still can be had at the end of High Plains storm days, even with the storms well past, and little or no lightning.  Doesn't this look delicious?  An otherworldly hue cast itself across a deck of mammatus clouds, emanating from a weakening area of once-severe thunderstorms to the south and east.  Having lost access to direct sunlight, the mammatus instead reflected deep maroon-brown … [Read more...]

Avian Footprints

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Some sort of water bird left these footprints in a pattern aligned parallel to the bank of Lake Thunderbird, instead of toward or away.  If that weren't strange enough, I saw no other prints before or after these in the sparkling snow.  Did the bird land, stand utterly still and fly?  The prints seem like a walking stride, not a takeoff or landing pattern, yet no others appeared nearby.  The … [Read more...]

Triangular Supercell Grew Wings

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If it weren't weird enough that the former Plainview supercell assumed a triangular shape, it then grew these "wings":  dual tail clouds bracketing the still-triangular updraft with nearly perfect symmetry.  Now it looked like some sort of enormous, imposing, alien spacecraft cruising in for a landing.  The tail clouds represent enhanced areas of low-level convergence and lift, each forcing … [Read more...]

Cumulus Humilis over Mountain Wetlands

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Rules of outdoor photography argue against doing so at midday, especially in summertime when the sun angle is highest.  I violate stupid rules.  This Rocky Mountain National Park scene of high-noon cumulus humilis, floating placidly through crystalline skies above a highland meadow's mirroring watercourse, was evocative and beautiful regardless of (and I'll argue, partly because of) this light.  … [Read more...]

Mammatus over Cheyenne Ridge

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As with some of our other most fruitful storm-intercept days, this one featured several supercells and concluded with a wonderful display on the back side of the main area of storms.  Quite often, we'll wheel around to the upshear side of storms before sunset, and this is why.  The amazing spectacle of sunset mammatus not only illuminated the northeastern sky, but also, reflected tonally warmed … [Read more...]