SkyPix

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

Gurley Swirl

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After producing one tornado in Wyoming and very nearly another in the Nebraska Panhandle, this storm settled down somewhat to "just" a menacing convective mass of wind, rain and hail, wrapped within a fascinating sweep of curves and lines in its cloud package.  Many processes were at work here!  The thick, striated bands sweeping outward from the storm formed in layers of laminar, rising flow atop … [Read more...]

Anticrepuscular Storm Shadow

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A big supercell to the north (left) cast one of the best-defined storm shadows I've seen, rendering a crisp edge to some of the last moments of late-afternoon sunshine.  The shadow line is the same one seen at the top of this nearly simultaneous shot of the business end of the storm.  This is also a marvelous manifestation of anticrepuscular (a.k.a. postcrepuscular) rays, which appear above the … [Read more...]

Moon off Kailua

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The ingredients for this splendid Hawaiian twilight spectacle were many:  multiple cloud decks (shallow stratocumulus under altocumulus, layered above volcanic "vog"), the waxing moon with lunar corona, post-sunset reds and yellows painting the distant sky, and a placid Pacific Ocean.  In the distance, barely rising above the sound of the gentle breeze, a ukelele played, courtesy of some anonymous … [Read more...]

Copper Moon Twilight

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Lunar eclipses are fairly common, but to catch one at dawn...not so much.   A few rooftop observers at the National Weather Center were fortunate enough on this morning to witness the spectacle of the copper moon in total eclipse, amidst the growing light of dawn.  The reddish glow comes from light passed through Earth's atmosphere ("sunset light" to us), then reflected off our moon's surface.  … [Read more...]

Ocean Shadow and Light

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Light and shadow slow-dance across the ocean below the ubiquitous marine stratocumulus deck that often covers much of the northeastern Pacific, with sporadic forays southwestward over Hawaii's nearshore waters.  I love the spotlit-ocean effect!  This looks like an aerial image, but no—instead the vantage was looking down from the high volcanic plateau flanking Mauna Loa's southwestern ridge that … [Read more...]

Colors of Bryce Canyon

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Sentinels in soft stone, the spires, pinnacles, hoodoos and rock towers of Bryce Canyon, all carved intricately by water and wind, stand stately and brilliantly in the diffused natural light of thin, high cloud cover.  Such light diffuses itself around the landscape and into shadows, softening the otherwise harsh contrast innate to the desert setting, and rendering a pastel-painted look to the … [Read more...]