SkyPix

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

Sunset through Desert Rain

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Desert thunderstorms were rather scant for my summer 2017 monsoonal trek, but not absent entirely!  Sunset light painted the underside of a convective cloud shield that sporadically spit sparks across the distant desert landscape, as at far right.  This was a pleasant way to supplement the storm day, after photographing downbursts and other outflow-dominant features a few miles closer to the … [Read more...]

Storm Shadow on Volcanoes

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A wet winter and spring left northeast New Mexico's volcanic plains thickly upholstered in verdant grasses, some of which already were ripening by early June.  As the partly cloudy forenoon hours quickly yielded to orographically forced thunderstorms of midday, and their anvil canopies spread above the land, light and shadow became both more subtle and deeper at the same time, shifting slowly … [Read more...]

Midday Lightning in New Mexico

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Days of late spring and early summer often find just enough low-level moisture banked up against the Raton Mesa and nearby volcanic hills to support late-morning through late-afternoon thunderstorm development.  This area is a reliable storm factory, as the elevated terrain heats and the atmosphere  overturn sooner than over the surrounding landscape.  This was one of several towering strokes from … [Read more...]

“Bent-Back” Tornadic Mesocyclone

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Seeing a newer, larger mesocyclone cross the road to our north and head east, most other observers fled this location in order to go find a way east, to keep up with the supercell.  Normally that's a reasonable maneuver.  However, 1) with the nearest east option being in the core, 2) having watched tornadoes form in the "bent-back" area where old, occluded mesocyclones can go to die at the rear of … [Read more...]

Amber Glow

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The day already was a visual delight for us, including wild cloud structures and a fortuitous visual illusion beyond sandscapes.  The atmosphere's mesoscale convective shell game removed the storms where we had been, leaving a complicated evening sky dominated by multilayered clouds that littered the back side of a thunderstorm cluster to our SE.  With other cloud layers to the WNW blocking … [Read more...]

Updraft Geyser

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A dying plume of a thunderstorm's updraft shriveled away in the southern sky, its bottom cut off from view by the crest of a vegetated sand dune, giving the illusion of a geyser erupting from just past the ridge.  The warm late afternoon light accentuated the dunes' muscular contours and shortgrass upholstery, giving a rich texture to this special Nebraska Sandhills scene. 11 S Hyannis NE (11 … [Read more...]