SkyPix

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

Southern Appalachians Sunset

By

[Part 2 of 2]  The last sliver of the visible sun poked over mountains near the Alabama/Georgia border, and a wavy strand of haze still concentrated along the top of the boundary layer.  Glare had dimmed enough to reduce the dynamic range and allow the rolling foreground terrain of the southern Appalachians to come out of hard shadow.  With a deep zoom into the most colorful, reddened area around … [Read more...]

Georgia Sun Goin’ Down

By

[Part 1 of 2]  Gazing to the horizon from the west slope of Burnt Mountain (which, by the way, I was glad to find unburned) offered what may be the best publicly available sunset view in north Georgia's steep hills and forests.  Aside from a cirrus streak evolved from an old contrail, the most interesting feature was the way top of the boundary layer, marked by a layer of haze trapped at the … [Read more...]

OKC “Low Hanging” Wall Cloud

By

The OKC supercell of March 2026 had a broad and elongated cloud base, but no consistent and persistent areas of tight low-level cyclonic rotation.  Instead, it kept cycling transient, small, moderate, fairly short-lived cyclonic-shear areas.  Shortly after a younger circulation to the northeast looked threatening but weakened, an old shear zone intensified slightly and redeveloped this wall cloud, … [Read more...]

OKC “Ground Scraping” Wall Cloud

By

Ironically backdropping two radars -- FAA units operating at OKC Will Rogers Airport -- a moderately rotating wall cloud rises from very near ground level.  Storm observers often call these "ground-scraping wall clouds."  No tornado was present in there, but a faint and wispy one could avoid visual detection without accessory effects such as power flashes.  Monitoring this compelled some … [Read more...]

Classic Supercell near Airport

By

A strongly tilted, classic supercell approached Oklahoma City's airport from the southwest.  The main OKC terminal is at lower far right.  A Southwest Airlines plane barely beat the storm, taking off to the south (in the immediate inflow region) just a few minutes after this shot.  Fortunately, it was about to circumnavigate the storm easily, based on a flight-tracking app.  Fortunately, the core … [Read more...]

Battlestar Norman Supercell

By

[Click Image to Enlarge] The last storm and sunset I would see from this roof as an employee turned out to be the most striking and memorable of them all.  Sweeping across the fall sunset sky from northwest to east, this astonishing supercell pulled a deep wall cloud and convection-topped rear-flank shelf through the sunset’s golden rays, presenting a scene that stunned all eyewitnesses.  From up … [Read more...]