SkyPix

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

Eastern Mammatus

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Opposite the sky of interest, sometimes comes a sky of interest.  If too fixated on the updraft region of the two large multicells that made this anvil (one of which soon would produce "landspouts" and later become supercellular), one might miss a show like this over the fabled Lincoln Highway.  Even when nontornadic, it's wise to keep one's head on a swivel, not only for safety and awareness … [Read more...]

Dream Sky

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Out of dreams and into the sky swirled the supercell of the decade so far, and one of the most fundamentally joyous, deeply astonishing scenes I've ever witnessed in any context.  This storm already had splendid structure, which just kept getting better until forming a vaporous stack of upside-down, offset bowls, splashed within and without by layers of filtered sunset and precipitation colors … [Read more...]

PV Cone

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A nearly ideal and isolated supercell in my conception for potentially becoming tornadic, finally did, though just once, with this modest and rain-wrapped cone, in an environment that seemed favorable for so much more.  The folks around Pauls Valley (PV as known locally, instead of "potential vorticity" as we meteorologists use) were glad that it produced no more.  Note the classical … [Read more...]

Another Hereford Mothership

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Slightly less than two years after observing a wildly structured, daytime supercell over Hereford (moving ESE), came another, moving SSE in twilight, and crossing the previous storm's path right over town.  Though Hereford probably is tired of these, thanks to the lightning, severe wind and hail, we observers were not, because of their power and beauty.  The small stir of dust near ground, just to … [Read more...]

Furrow Flooding

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Unusually heavy seasonal rains, boosted hugely by passage of multiple heavy-precipitation supercells in the preceding weeks, left plowed fields flooded and unusable across much of northwest Texas during mid-spring 2025.  Having driven by this field in a darkly cloudy late afternoon on the way out to the Permian Basin for a chase, I noticed these furrows as a potential photo subject, hoping for … [Read more...]

Pretornadic Supercell

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When someone asks me what I look for in a maturing supercell before it produces a tornado, I'll describe something much like this:  a very wide, but well-tilted updraft, large and low base, juicy moist environment (preferably along a diurnally baked baroclinic boundary for added low-level vorticity, as this was), not excessive precip behind (W or SW of) the updraft, a well-formed tail extending … [Read more...]