SkyPix

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

Scud Stogie

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Back in our NSSL field project days in 1989, Rich Thompson coined the term "Scud Cigar," a.k.a. Scud Stogie, for these kinds of elongated, often rather smooth and cigar-like, low-level cloud masses.  [It seemed as if outflow was all we saw storms produce for most of that year, so we got good at watching it and nicknaming its effects.]  A specialized but common variety of fractocumulus, stogies … [Read more...]

Berglet

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A small iceberg floats in an Alaskan glacial fjord, accompanied by smaller pieces of ice.  The stark coldness of the scene was accented visually under foggy and overcast skies, the water tinged with fine silt.  Yes, the black spots are supposed to be there.  Each consists of clumps of ground-up rock and muddy ice, entrained into the glacier as it scoured its way down the valley to the sea.  As the … [Read more...]

Reflections of Downtown Portland

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Portland's tallest structures reflect their night lights nicely off the Willamette River.  Some of what appears to be fog really was, as cooling temperatures layer lowered the condensation level right down to the waterline.  Some of it was smoke from fires set to cars and structures downtown by rioters displeased with the election results, as well as from flash-bang devices used by the cops to … [Read more...]

Classic Oklahoma Tornado

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After a spectacular pre-tornadic display of storm structure, the mature Dover tornado passed just over a mile to my south.  It destroyed a barn and several stands of trees during this stage; pieces of them were swirling around in the debris fan.  No rain or hail fell at my location during the tornado's passage from southwest thru southeast.  Unlike in many tornadic supercells, the precipitation … [Read more...]

Pine Ridge Stormscape

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We hadn't expected much this day, storm-wise.  Still, somehow, severe thunderstorms erupted in the rolling grasslands of the Wyoming-Nebraska border. That high-based activity shot SE across the Nebraska Panhandle and "gusted out" fast, gushing a dense current of cold outflow across the countryside in what seemed to be a most unhappy ending to our pursuit of stormy enrichment.  Many observers would … [Read more...]

Chugwater Tornado: Wide View

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I quickly popped on the wide-angle lens for some more all-encompassing views of the Chugwater tornado, the surrounding classic supercell, and the rolling Wyoming countryside carpeted in green wheat.  Despite the duly ominous rumblings of the tornadic supercell to our west, and its motion toward and slightly to the left of us, no lightning was striking nearby, no hail falling (yet).  Western … [Read more...]