SkyPix

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

Blistering Splash

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This is one splish-splash where you should not take a bath.  The gurgling cauldron of mineralized water sloshes to the surface from high-pressure underground chambers at temperatures that occasionally exceed the boiling point, which at this elevation is about 15 degree slower than at sea level—still more than enough to render awful burns.  Instead it's best simply to appreciate the primeval beauty … [Read more...]

Hanging Aerial Filament

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Just like the previous shot of aerial filaments, we were located on the northwest side of a band of elevated thunderstorms, although the cloud-to-air lightning discharges weren't quite as frequent in this event.  I call this the "hanging" filament because the lightning appears to dangle from the surrounding cloud material, as if it wished to reach ground but gave up along the way.  In truth, this … [Read more...]

Aerial Filaments

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We set up on the northwest side of a band of elevated thunderstorms, watching and photographing lightning for well over an hour (including some earlier cloud structure shots with the last vestiges of fading twilight).  Electrically active cores and convective plumes moved toward the north-northeast along the line from their origins, strobing with discharges inside and out during their treks.  On … [Read more...]

Multicells Aglow

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Back in my last season of slide film, a series of multicell thunderstorms formed above outflow from a large MCS earlier in the afternoon.  This gave us a long lasting show of internally generated light to cap off a very peaceful and pleasant evening of storm observing that featured a display of reflected sunset glow from a short while before.  The lightning was mostly in-cloud, but quite frequent … [Read more...]

Maple Leaf Ashore

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A maple leaf sloshes hither and yon with the gentle oscillations of summertime surf at Lake Superior, engraving temporary trails with points and stem as it slides across the sand.  The multicolored grains eroded from nearby ledges of the Jacobsville sandstone formation—a 1.1-billion-year-old rock only found around part of Lake Superior. 1 N Big Bay MI (19 Jul 7)  Looking down 46.8292, -87.7296 … [Read more...]

Halo Rays

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The morning dawned rainy and stayed that way, typical for the temperate rain forests that thickly carpet the west slopes of Washington's Olympic Peninsula.  By late afternoon, solar heating broke apart the lingering clouds and fog, except over a few of the seacoast woodlands, like this one inside Teawhit Head.  This was in a relatively secluded, still area of forest, quiet but for dripping moss … [Read more...]