SkyPix

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

Tornadic Supercell, Wyoming High Plains

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By this time, the Chugwater tornado clearly was beginning to meet its Chugwaterloo.  Though moving toward us in an absolute sense, it had migrated toward the back of the storm in this wide-angle view, while a new (and ultimately non-tornadic) mesocyclone formed in front middle, with a thin, broken tail cloud to its right.  The tornado had wrapped so much rear-flank and occlusion-downdraft air that … [Read more...]

Underwater Highway

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State road 80 curved gently underneath the excessively lofty water levels of nearby Fort Gibson Reservoir.  Descending downhill on a curve, then driving unaware into this inundation, wouldn't have been such a gentle endeavor!  Fortunately, the road was closed and barricaded about a hundred yards behind the view.  Those who drive around or remove such barricades, just to cut across a flooded route, … [Read more...]

Tidewater Ripples

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Five years before, I stooped down to photograph thicker sand ripples on a cold-water beach, near the opposite corner of the country.  This time, the last intrusions of shallower water during an outgoing tide left behind shorter ridges and flatter, broader troughs, but still reminiscent of—and from fluid processes similar to—the eolian (wind made) dune fields of northern Nebraska. Jekyll Island … [Read more...]

Sand Saturated

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Soaked beach sand glimmers in the sun as the tide recedes. The ripples were left by seaward currents running largely perpendicular to the orientation of the sand ridges. Basically the same process—but on a much larger and slower scale, with wind as the fluid—created the great parallel dune fields of the Nebraska Sand Hills and the Arabian Desert.  Bonus:  it makes a marvelously sinuous natural … [Read more...]

Funnel Cloud in the Rain…from a Flanking Line

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We had watched two supercells move past the Emporia area already on this afternoon, and were trying to keep up with a rain-wrapped, outflow-dominant mesocyclone occlusion from the second as it raced eastward across the road to our N.  About the time we decided to give up on that circulation and turn around to target other storms to our SW, this funnel cloud surprised us by forming under the … [Read more...]