SkyPix

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

Mesocyclone Region, Forward-Flank Core

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Classic, somewhat high-based, High Plains supercell structure appears here, with the rain-free base and wall cloud at left signifying the mesocyclonic updraft area.  At right, the newly mature storm's forward-flank core delivered flash-flooding rains, strong to severe wind, and significant hail to a few square miles of the Texas Panhandle.  This supercell was delivering its largest reported … [Read more...]

Barber Pole

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Clearly this jaw-dropping storm structure would reward any effort of travel by the dedicated weather buff or photographic enthusiast.  We sometimes wander afield in futility for day after day, across many hundreds of miles of prairie and scrub, in dogged pursuit of such a "dream storm," only to watch a season, perhaps many seasons, pass without.  And then, and then...it all spins together—almost … [Read more...]

Canyon Crawlers

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Naturally, the title doesn't describe bugs in a gorge, or lizards in a chasm, but instead, "anvil crawler" lightning over fairly level lands south of the Palo Duro Canyon.  Evolving from a marvelous daytime supercell and its fine blowout of a sunset presentation, this complex of thunderstorms churned off into the night and across the Caprock and rolling plains between Lubbock and southwestern … [Read more...]

Sunset Blast

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For years I had wondered how one of those magnificently sharply textured, scuddy underbellies of an outflow-dominant High Plains supercell would present itself from the west, in sunset rays.  Here's one answer.  The unfiltered shaft of last direct sunlight brightly spotlit the rightmost parts of the base while rain-filtered light, through a series of showers forming behind me, softly tinted the … [Read more...]

Wall Clouds and Microburst

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A hard-right-moving supercell fired off the dryline in the Texas Panhandle and churned southward (right to left) toward and across eastern Amarillo.  Before it got there, several high-based wall clouds appeared, related to mesocyclone cycles.  Here, a newer, tiered wall cloud appears on the left (south) side, ahead of an older, ragged one with a deep occlusion at right rear.  At far right, that … [Read more...]

Gathering Storm, New Mexico High Plains

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Wind and the windmills they power are the very essences of the High Plains, from West Texas and New Mexico on to Montana and beyond.  Early formation of shelf clouds here spoke the language of a young storm already ready to rock, drenching a parched land with flash-flooding rains and assembling a wall of wind to shove into that of other storms to the east.  Although this one spent itself on … [Read more...]