SkyPix

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

Travertine Takeover

By

Upon pondering Yellowstone National Park, most folks think of geysers, wildlife, hot pools, mountains:  all amazing and worthy of the camera, for sure.  Yet in one corner of the park lies a grimly stark landscape frontng the distant Absaroka Range—ledges of travertine, precipitated from old hot springs, that entombed the trees they encountered.  In the dry, high-altitude climate, the old arboreal … [Read more...]

Cascades below Yst i-Rjukandi

By

A short distance downhill and downstream from the “Yst i-Rjukandi” waterfall set, this fine, unnamed cascade offers what looks like a refreshing place to take a cool plunge.  Of course, the dip would be described better as a frigid cardiac jolt, considering that the stream drains snow and ice in the Icelandic Highlands just  a few degrees latitude below the Arctic Circle.  Hence, not even the … [Read more...]

Circumzenithal Arc

By

We so often miss interesting visual effects, especially on days of placid weather, because they're going on almost directly overhead and with little fanfare. I'm glad, therefore, someone ran inside and told me of this as I was leaving work!  The "inverted rainbow" feature at the top is the circumzenithal arc, so named because, if it were an exceedingly rare full circle, it would enclose the … [Read more...]

Sunset Light, Montana Moon

By

Storm-observing days don't necessarily end after the storms, or in the day.   We soaked in the sweet-earth aroma of rain-soaked dryland prairie, the last diurnal birds singing their roosting songs, as fresh, cool breezes carried the scent of rejuvenation across the landscape.   Twilight remnants of sunset light cast aglow the high clouds trailing the storms, punctuated by fading golden hues of the … [Read more...]

Western Light: Glasgow, Montana

By

As my late friend Jim Leonard was fond of saying, this storm meant "serious business now".  Functioning as "tail-end Charlie" for a line of severe storms, the supercell wielding this wild sky was roaring eastward at over 60 mph, permitting us only few very brief photo stops over a 70-mile stretch west of town.  We arrived at friends' house in Glasgow with three minutes to spare, before measured … [Read more...]

Four Lights in Freezing Rain

By

Four bright lights shone through correspondingly placed trees at the National Weather Center, as the saplings became ever more thickly coated.  While meteorologists inside worked all through the night to forecast how and when it would end, the 2007 ice storm unfolded directly out the windows.  Freezing rain was falling at the time of this photo, and would continue off and on through the … [Read more...]