SkyPix

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

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...]

Silver Falls in Flood

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Roaring through its canyon, swollen with rain-driven snowmelt, the Ohanepecosh River carved its path some imperceptible measure deeper through the volcanic substrate on its way to the Pacific.  In the rain, the light was ideal for photographing such a torrent and the surrounding forest in one short time exposure, as overcast conditions tend to diffuse light more evenly throughout the scene.  And … [Read more...]

Serrated Arcus

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[Part 2 of 4] A high-based, sharply defined, jagged-edged shelf cloud surges southeastward over the high plains of eastern Colorado, from a supercell evolving into an outflow-blasting multicell.  In this region, a lack of richer subcloud humidity and haze usually helps to reduce the condensation down to a very sculpted form, representing only the strongest fingers and slabs of lift.  It's an … [Read more...]

Wall or Shelf Cloud?

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[Part 1 of 4] A shelf cloud developed in piecemeal fashion as a high-based supercell became outflow dominant.  The low-pressure area internal to the storm still was forcing rotation—in this case, of that ragged cloud lowering.  If that feature looks like it can't make up its mind whether to be a wall cloud or a shelf cloud, there is good reason.  It was rotating, but also, being undercut by cold … [Read more...]

Virga Blow

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Traveling from one dying set of storms in Colorado to another still getting organized in the Oklahoma Panhandle, we passed by this high-based shell of a former supercell that had drifted out of northeastern New Mexico.  Scenic but devoid of substantial convective structure, we didn't want to linger long with this storm; in fact, this shot was courtesy of being stuck behind a stoppage of traffic in … [Read more...]

Scud Stogie

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Back in our NSSL field project days in 1989, Rich Thompson coined the term "Scud Cigar," a.k.a. Scud Stogie, for these kinds of elongated, often rather smooth and cigar-like, low-level cloud masses.  [It seemed as if outflow was all we saw storms produce for most of that year, so we got good at watching it and nicknaming its effects.]  A specialized but common variety of fractocumulus, stogies … [Read more...]