SkyPix

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

Cauldron’s Colorful Edge

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Exotic minerals and colorful bacteria combine to form peculiar colorations within and bounding many of Yellowstone's surface geothermal waters.  This was no exception—a bubbling, gurgling cauldron neat the Echinus Geyser where a deep red ochre shade stands out through the steam.  Being directed mostly by hydrothermal processes, the micro-geology of these places changes so quickly that this area … [Read more...]

Forgan LP

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Large, high-based, slowly rotating, this wall cloud menacingly loomed at the bottom of an LP (low-precipitation) supercell near the Oklahoma Panhandle burg of Forgan.  Note the pointed mass of scud, connected to the right underside of the wall cloud.  This "scud cone" was wrongly identified as a tornado by chasers who were viewing it in silhouette, from a greater distance, in the opposite … [Read more...]

Perishing Pileus

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Broad areas of ice crystal condensation around the top of a developing multicellular cumulonimbus create a ghostly effect, as captured by slide film.  This occurred above Oklahoma's narrow Panhandle strip of the High Plains, as the large, marvelous rampart of storm towers pushed up through layers of fuzzy ice-crystal clouds known as pileus. 7 N Turpin OK (4 Jun 96) Looking SE … [Read more...]

Beautiful Mess

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A deeply dimensional blend of outflow-riding fractostratus scud and sunset-lit mammatus textured the sky into a chaotic, messy, wondrous spectacle following the passage of a photogenic HP supercell and accompanying thunderstorm complex.  Moments later, in the opposite corner of the sky, a rising moon and reddening sunset color closed out not only a marvelous storm-observing day, but our 2017 chase … [Read more...]

Dichotomies

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Upside down, rightside up, wet and dry, light and shadow, life and death...all exist in a place peaceful yet born of incomprehensible natural violence.  These dichotomies and more manifest in just this image, where reflections of the sky and straight views of the pool's bottom vie for visual attention.  Cistern Spring's overflows have flooded parts of a lodgepole pine forest, killing the trees and … [Read more...]

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...]