SkyPix

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

EF5 Wedge with Satellite Tornado

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Fortunately for us, the El Reno/Piedmont wedge tornado of 2011 took a slight leftward jog as we drove southward.  Shortly after we pulled safely off the road, the now-gigantic tornado started wrapping again in precipitation.  Its deep, carnal rumble unmistakably was heard and felt across the intervening 1-1/2 miles.  Even crouched low with one foot forward, I barely could stand in severe inflow … [Read more...]

Shelf Cloud

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Upon seeing shallow little thunderheads moving in from the NNW, we shifted our attention inland from a day of exploring and photography on the northeastern shores of Lake Superior.  It was obvious that one of the Cb's would pass over or just E of Wawa Lake, so we headed there, knowing there would be an unobstructed view from the S or W side as it passed.  The result exceeded our expectations—a … [Read more...]

Sweetgum’s Claws

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Curved icicles dangling from the leaves of a sweetgum tree perform a decent caricature of clawed dinosaur feet.  The curvature happens when the object hosting the icicle changes position gradually, such as when a tree branch steadily sags from the weight of accumulating ice.  The icy stalactite always points down at the time that part of it was formed, but what constitutes "down" changes over the … [Read more...]

Fountain Bow

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Rainbows don't need rain.  Any good source of spray in the sunshine will do, such as this series of fountains at the Fort Worth Water Gardens.  The darkness of the pool's water helped the contrast and brightness of the "spray bow" stand out, much as would a dark storm core behind a natural rainbow. Fort Worth TX (28 Jul 8) Looking E 32.748, -97.327 … [Read more...]

Coronal Reflections

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A color corona around the sun, and amidst a zig-zagging deck of altocumulus translucidus clouds, was lost in the glare when seen through dark glasses or the camera lens, but made its presence known through reflections off the water's surface.  This sort of corona is a visual effect of the earth's atmosphere (specifically diffraction), and shouldn't be confused with that like-named part of the … [Read more...]