SkyPix

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

Connerville Tornado’s Ragged Updraft

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What a fascinating, surprising event this was!  Above is a near-normal view of the same tornado presented earlier in zoomed perspective.  Even though the updraft was rotating, it would seem a stretch to call the feature a supercell, since its radar presentation was hardly recognizable, and since the parent cloudform was so disorganized and shredded in appearance.   The cloud base is uneven and … [Read more...]

Funnels Aplenty

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After several minutes of cruising slowly across the central Nebraska prairies, with little damage except to fences and ant hills, the Sargent tornado began to narrow.  Its condensation funnel "roped out" slowly while still contacting the surface, as the cloud base outpaced the ground circulation.  This process is very common for tornadoes.  The sudden development of another funnel nearby (and … [Read more...]

Ice Street

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Although the storm was far worse over eastern Oklahoma, Norman wasn't spared the frigid treachery of a mix of sleet and freezing rain in January 2007.  Neighborhood streets, which typically are not sanded or salted there, became impassible to most vehicles for several days after main roads were navigable again.  This one actually was more navigable the day following the precipitation than for two … [Read more...]

From the Top Deck

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A high-based but severe thunderstorm to the SW cast a virga-dropping anvil overhead, while one thin band of cloud material bisected the view of the setting sun.  The scene assumed a deeply warm glow, dazzling and delighting a group of meteorology students gathered on the National Weather Center's top-floor observation deck.  Some of them said this was the best sunset they had seen.  … [Read more...]

Sunlit Tube

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We headed eastward out of Sulphur with dual purposes:  to track the remains of that storm's massive and violent tornado and to decide on whether to attempt intercept of a newer supercell well to its southeast.  With the Sulphur supercell weakening, we stopped at a T-intersection to strategize and weigh options.  Suddenly this tornado materialized out of a small, ragged updraft between the two … [Read more...]

Wet Tornado Roaring off Road

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By the time it was finishing its rampage across US-177, the Sulphur tornado had become a wet, diffuse, yet still intensely destructive and loudly roaring vortex, with no sharply defined visual edges.  The hail- and debris-flinging RFD pivoted around to a west-northwesterly alignment without as many embedded flying objects as in the minute prior.   Heavy rain would continue to encircle the tornado … [Read more...]