SkyPix

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

White Rock Lightning

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Awakening from a nap to notice a bunch of flashing in the southern sky, I quickly shook off the mental cobwebs, grabbed the camera, and headed to a known high spot with an unimpeded southward view: Boy Scout Hill on the north side of White Rock Lake.  Most of the lightning by this time was faint or unimpressive, but these quick-succession blasts carved white ribbons across one frame of my … [Read more...]

Harrisburg Arcus: Left Side

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Here is the east (left, from my vantage) end of a tremendous outflow surge across the wheat fields of the Nebraska Panhandle, thanks to a former heavy-precip supercell now evolving into a small bow echo.  This storm produced reports of almost hurricane-force gusts near our location, and rocked the vehicle strongly as the core roared past.  The right (west) side was also quite photogenic. 7 SE … [Read more...]

Harrisburg Arcus: Right Side

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An outflow-dominant supercell began to lose its rotational characteristics and surf that outflow northeastward across the pocket of unstable air in which the storm formed.  Since we stood to its northeast, that meant the leading edge of the outflow was directed right at is, offering a spectacular, multilayered shelf-and-chamber cloud stack from the western sky (shown here) to the southern.  The … [Read more...]

Mount Rainier in Soft Clouds

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In the clearing late-afternoon conditions of a departing weather system, Mount Rainier stands high and brilliantly, surrounded by soft cumulus, stratocumulus and fractus clouds drifting through a clean blue sky.  This southwesterly view of the big volcano is uncommon, thanks to lack of unobstructed vantages, but we found one, and just at the right moment.  Here is a summertime sunrise scene from … [Read more...]

Off 19

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After producing the infamous Wind Farm Tornado, the newer circulation to its N tightened and headed NE in the general direction of where I had been—from slightly over a mile away.  Given such a logistically unsuitable predicament, I scooted a little over a mile E to watch the area of rotational concern cross freshly repaved Oklahoma 19.  This was the resulting brief tornado at its best:  one … [Read more...]

Last Gasp in Twilight

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After producing numerous tornadoes in its march from the Red River to central Oklahoma, including the "Wind Farm Tornado" and another near OK-19, this supercell finally had spent all its intense ground-based spin.  Still, even in the fading twilight and increasingly feeble boundary-layer temperatures, a residual wall cloud continued to hang very low and visibly rotate—albeit slowly.  The supercell … [Read more...]