SkyPix

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

Twilight on the Platte

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Just a short while earlier, as a band of storms passed to the east, we had enjoyed the flight of thousands of sandhill cranes and snow geese across a rainbow-decorated sky.  After dealing with a rough weather day of cold wind, then late storms, followed by a cold front, the cranes didn't arrive en masse for their river roosting until deeper into the twilight, when light levels were very low and … [Read more...]

Osage County Conclusion

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Much of the afternoon was spent waiting longer than expected for storms to erupt, and when they finally did, along a cold front merging with a dryline, they were slow to grow and acted somewhat buoyancy-starved.   With supercellular prospects dwindling as quickly as sunset approached, I effectively retreated to the rear side by letting the young, struggling storms move overhead and to the east.   … [Read more...]

Mesocyclone Region, Forward-Flank Core

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Classic, somewhat high-based, High Plains supercell structure appears here, with the rain-free base and wall cloud at left signifying the mesocyclonic updraft area.  At right, the newly mature storm's forward-flank core delivered flash-flooding rains, strong to severe wind, and significant hail to a few square miles of the Texas Panhandle.  This supercell was delivering its largest reported … [Read more...]

Barber Pole

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Clearly this jaw-dropping storm structure would reward any effort of travel by the dedicated weather buff or photographic enthusiast.  We sometimes wander afield in futility for day after day, across many hundreds of miles of prairie and scrub, in dogged pursuit of such a "dream storm," only to watch a season, perhaps many seasons, pass without.  And then, and then...it all spins together—almost … [Read more...]

Canyon Crawlers

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Naturally, the title doesn't describe bugs in a gorge, or lizards in a chasm, but instead, "anvil crawler" lightning over fairly level lands south of the Palo Duro Canyon.  Evolving from a marvelous daytime supercell and its fine blowout of a sunset presentation, this complex of thunderstorms churned off into the night and across the Caprock and rolling plains between Lubbock and southwestern … [Read more...]

Sunset Blast

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For years I had wondered how one of those magnificently sharply textured, scuddy underbellies of an outflow-dominant High Plains supercell would present itself from the west, in sunset rays.  Here's one answer.  The unfiltered shaft of last direct sunlight brightly spotlit the rightmost parts of the base while rain-filtered light, through a series of showers forming behind me, softly tinted the … [Read more...]