SkyPix

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

Downside Up

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Only the mirrored view is photographed here, where the sun is diffused somewhat by intervening fog, then reflected (along with the arboreal silhouettes) off the surface of a limpid pond.  Scanning the whole of a scene offers not only the over-arching, full perspective, but opportunities to focus one's concentration (or composition, if engaging the art of photography) into particularly captivating … [Read more...]

Wild Night Sky

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A dense band of severe thunderstorms with embedded supercells plowed southeastward at over 50 mph and forced both stable and unstable layers of air to rise, creating this magnificently lightning-tinted rampart of cloud decks beneath a mammatus-dappled anvil teeming with electrical crawlers. 10 NW Sayre OK (16 May 16) Looking NNW 35.4079, -99.7308 … [Read more...]

Connerville Tornado’s Ragged Updraft

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What a fascinating, surprising event this was!  Above is a near-normal view of the same tornado presented earlier in zoomed perspective.  Even though the updraft was rotating, it would seem a stretch to call the feature a supercell, since its radar presentation was hardly recognizable, and since the parent cloudform was so disorganized and shredded in appearance.   The cloud base is uneven and … [Read more...]

Funnels Aplenty

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After several minutes of cruising slowly across the central Nebraska prairies, with little damage except to fences and ant hills, the Sargent tornado began to narrow.  Its condensation funnel "roped out" slowly while still contacting the surface, as the cloud base outpaced the ground circulation.  This process is very common for tornadoes.  The sudden development of another funnel nearby (and … [Read more...]

Ice Street

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Although the storm was far worse over eastern Oklahoma, Norman wasn't spared the frigid treachery of a mix of sleet and freezing rain in January 2007.  Neighborhood streets, which typically are not sanded or salted there, became impassible to most vehicles for several days after main roads were navigable again.  This one actually was more navigable the day following the precipitation than for two … [Read more...]

From the Top Deck

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A high-based but severe thunderstorm to the SW cast a virga-dropping anvil overhead, while one thin band of cloud material bisected the view of the setting sun.  The scene assumed a deeply warm glow, dazzling and delighting a group of meteorology students gathered on the National Weather Center's top-floor observation deck.  Some of them said this was the best sunset they had seen.  … [Read more...]