SkyPix

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

Decades After the Wind and Fire

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Forest growth goes slowly at the high altitude and cold climate of Yellowstone, yet this is more than most "experts" expected after two devastating events at this spot, four years apart.  In 1984, an extremely severe downburst roared across areas near the Norris Geyser Basin, streaking for miles eastward at high speed, leveling hundreds of thousands of lodgepole pines, and leaving only a few … [Read more...]

Cactus Carcass

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An area of planned burning didn't char this three-armed prickly pear thanks to its high water content, but it was, in meat-cooking parlance, well-done.  This process replicates the natural tendency for periodic fires to take out excessive cactus growth in the grassland, benefiting large mammals such as buffalo that already have to sidestep boulders while trudging through the area. 5 W Medicine … [Read more...]

Ice Damage at the National Weather Center

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Decorative adornments that curve around the outer roof line of the National Weather Center became coated with ice during a freezing-rain event.  Lubricated by meltwater during ensuing days, the ice slid off and tumbled six stories, busting this safety glass above the first-floor entryway.  Fortunately this windowpane was under the icefall and not someone's living skull. Norman OK (1 Feb 10) … [Read more...]

Icicle Blues

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Icicles, dangling in an unstable way from a roof's edge, give the somewhat justified impression of danger overhead as they deposit a drop at a time of meltwater below.  The 1-1/2–2-foot pieces at middle left and middle right could punch a painful hole in one's noggin should they pop loose at just the wrong time. Norman OK (24 Dec 13) Looking NE 35.214, -97.376 … [Read more...]

Hydrothermal Abstraction

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Fluidly evolving, never the same from one second or month to the next, the hydrothermal springs of Yellowstone offer an incalculable variety of looks in different light and over time, even as the geology itself adjusts on time scales more similar to atmospheric than terrestrial.  Mineral deposition by cooling and depressurized water sculpts ledges week by week, and moves algal and bacterial … [Read more...]