SkyPix

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

Genoa Spin

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A two-dimensional image doesn't begin to convey the intense, furious rotation that was going on in this wall cloud.  The formation, hovering over Interstate 70 in eastern Colorado, spun so fast that I thought it would produce a big tornado anytime.  This was shot wide-angle; so we were rather close to the action.  At least as fascinating as the rapid motions, I found that the menacing black base … [Read more...]

See Six States and a Storm

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On the outskirts of Genoa (Colorado, not Italy) resided a novelty and antique shop that claimed a view of six states from atop its observation tower.  The friendly,  eccentric old gentleman who ran the place, Jerry Chubbuck, was glad to give us storm observers the grand tour as we waited for one of two supercells—one to the northwest (shown here), and another one to the west, to become dominant … [Read more...]

Skjalfandafljot River: Rock Cutting

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Downstream from the famous cascade Godafoss, eyes often miss the stark beauty of the Skjalfandafljot River, its beautiful, glacial blue waters slowly carving a canyon through hard basalt deposits common to the entirely igneous geology of the island.  As long as this channel doesn't get filled by more lava—an uncertainty for certain—the river eventually will cut a gorge several hundred feet deep, … [Read more...]

Erick’s Electrics

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After a flaming sunset began the real "chase day," we followed a cluster of storms as it loped through the eastern Texas Panhandle, intermittently shooting forth sizzling jabs of lightning.  Its final electrical encore blazed through the skies over Erick, a dot on the western Oklahoma map also located just to the right of this photo.  Duly satisfied with what we had salvaged from what had been a … [Read more...]

Dusty Texas Sundown

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Another storm intercept day ended with a vivid Great Plains sunset, this time through both colorful high clouds and a pall of fine dust in the western sky. Although the storms developing behind our backs did little of note before darkness set in, and were not even particularly photogenic prior to this, a brilliantly blazing Panhandle sundown saved the day.  Indeed, our main interest before … [Read more...]

Relic of the Great Plains

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A teetering, towering testament to a bygone era, within about eight years this grain structure mo longer punctuated the High Plains skyline.  I don't know whether its downfall was a downburst, tornado, blizzard, or simply the pressure of one final gust against the wrong wall.  If it had a voice, I wonder what stories the building could have told me of the Panhandle storms it weathered.   Now it … [Read more...]