SkyPix

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

Tidewater Ripples

By

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

By

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

By

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...]

Plow Wind

By

Plow wind is an archaic rural nickname for strong and severe outflow winds from thunderstorms, especially those that "plow" the dirt into the air, as in this fine example.  Such winds aren't restricted just to squall lines or multicell storms.  The plow wind here, evident underneath a ragged arcus cloud, was part of a west Texas supercell's rear-flank downdraft. 4 E Knott TX (23 Apr 8) Looking … [Read more...]

Fair View from “Fairview”

By

The atmosphere rewarded us for a long trip to the southeast edge of the Great Plains, near Big Spring, and all the hassles and expense that came along the way.  [A nearby, unincorporated place called "Fairview" is appropriately named, but not the same as the Fairview 300 miles away in Collin County.]  We crested a rise with a fantastic overlook, and this storm appeared before us in all its … [Read more...]

Embedded Rotation

By

A small supercell formed in a pocket of favorably unstable air, right at the southern rim of favorable deep shear, but quickly became nearly surrounded by other storms.  Regardless of becoming embedded in a bigger storm cluster, the supercell spun strongly at times in middle levels as seen from faraway radars, and tightened up enough in low levels to produce a brief funnel cloud or two, earning a … [Read more...]