SkyPix

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

Storm on the Judith Range

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Where the green northern Great Plains meets the farthest outposts of the Rockies, thunderstorms fire often in the late spring and summer, rolling across the vast Montana landscape, spitting fire and ice in the form of lightning and hail.  This booming spectacle swept eastward out of the Judith Gap area, across Lewistown and the gold- and silver-laced mineral veins of the Judith Range, spinning … [Read more...]

Yoder Motor

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Quickly organizing, this young supercell went from a rather featureless and high-based cell over higher terrain to growing fat and happy fast, when encountering a ribbon of richer moisture advecting out of the Nebraska Panhandle.  A fresh but weak outflow boundary from a prior supercell to the north may have helped too.  This wall cloud arose within just a few minutes as the low-level mesocyclone … [Read more...]

Evening on the Iceberg Beach

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Some reasonably insulating hip waders, that glorious slate-blue light post-sunset, and an eye for the ice blocks shed from Jokulsarlon helped to set up a series of favorite photos from the iceberg beach lying opposite the glacial lagoon, on the Atlantic side of a sand spit.  These blocks float into the ocean and wash up quickly, yet melt slowly as the surf gently laps around them, thanks to the … [Read more...]

Vortex Stretching

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The already improbable Connerville tornado stretched ever longer into a slender, graceful, somewhat translucent, yet still intense vortex, buzzing across the open country as if a vaporous drill bit.  Soon it would stretch and thin further, into an incredibly long, narrow strand.  While this will be forgotten in the annals of historical tornadoes due to its lack of damage, I consider that a … [Read more...]

Torrent under the Tree

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Swollen out of its banks and agitated almost to a froth by a large floodgate release just upstream, the Neosho (Grand) River surged around and beneath many trees in its floodplain.  Brilliant spotlighting of this trunk and lower branches, against the turbulent backdrop of the churning waters, drew my attention to the scene and essentially composed the shot for me. 5 NNE Fort Gibson OK (16 Oct … [Read more...]

Menacing Aurora

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We parked beside the road at the west edge of Aurora, ready to drive through town and away while dreading the highway-hugging tornado's impending impact there.  A civil-defense siren eerily wailed behind me; otherwise, the scene was oddly silent and ominously dark in the fading twilight.  Police had blocked all traffic westward out of town, and no other chase vehicles had arrived at our location … [Read more...]