SkyPix

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

Cold-Core Tornado

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For years, I had wanted to observe one of the small, often beautiful tornadoes that develop from shallow, fast-moving supercells that develop in arcs of convection, just ahead of a compact middle-upper level low.  Colloquially, they're called "cold-core" tornadoes, after the swath of cold air aloft that accompanies such cyclones, and that contributes to the instability supporting the supercells.  … [Read more...]

Mountain Sky Canvas

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After a short run of fishing in the Rio Grande, astride what used to be the border between the U.S. and the Republic of Texas, I hopped out of the "Texas" side to head back for the night, when peripheral vision of an orange flow over the distant ridge tops caught my attention.  Fluidly brushed across the sky, flowing and evolving within every minute, wavy streak and clumpy swaths of cirrus clouds … [Read more...]

Space Ship Storm

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The tornado outbreak of 3 May 1999 was the most destructive in Oklahoma history, and one of the deadliest.  The Chickasha tornado was the fourth spawned by this classic supercell.  In this wide-angle view, shot on 200-speed Sensia slide film, the tornado churns along almost perfectly centered under the large, smooth and nearly circular supercell base.  Looming ominously over the darkened … [Read more...]

Rapids of Canyon Creek

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Just a few dozen feet downstream from a tremendous slot-canyon waterfall, Canyon Creek tumbles noisily over boulders in the stream bed when it has sufficiently robust flow.   Early autumn typically is the lowest-discharge period of the year for streams in the central Rockies, with the minimal amount of upstream snow remaining from the prior winter.   However, I caught this one on the day after an … [Read more...]

Box Canyon Falls

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Wherever one finds mountains and flowing water, waterfalls are a sure bet.  Following a steep grade from the adjoining San Juan Mountains into Ouray, Canyon Creek carved a narrow gorge—in some places, a slot canyon like this—first through Mississippian Leadville limestone, then Devonian Ouray and Elbert  limestones and sandstones, and finally, slate and hard quartzite of the Precambrian … [Read more...]

Thunderhead over Haze

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Here was a striking example of a young cumulonimubus (Cb) casting a shadow on a haze layer aloft.  This formation over Gem, KS, also offered an atmospheric gem:  iridescence, or prism-like refractive color separation, in the cirriform cloud streaks in the right-center of the picture, just above the near edge of the Cb.  This striking scene highlighted an otherwise nondescript day of … [Read more...]