SkyPix

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

Nontornadic Funnel with Dust

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The ragged, skinny funnel cloud at the center of the photo was rotating, and located less than a mile from the edge of a regional population center, but I had zero inclination to report it as a potential tornado.  That's because it presented no threat.  The young supercell formed along surging outflow, in which we stood, and its updraft already was being undercut for several minutes.  The dust … [Read more...]

Light up the Night

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This page's title is what this supercell did for hours, as it churned slowly south-southwestward across the near part of northwestern to west-central Oklahoma.  Early in my time here, enough moonlight filtered through to make the anvil edge and flanking line visible, at middle to lower left.  This was the third spot of five along the way from early twilight to past midnight, where I stopped and … [Read more...]

Electricity Forward

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Both cloud-to-ground and upper-level crawler lightning blasted through the common forward-flank core region of both a longstanding supercell (represented by the striated cloud feature in the background) and a newer midlevel updraft train at center.  Which was more responsible for the lightning?  Likely the supercell, which already had been sparking like crazy for hours before the newer updrafts … [Read more...]

Spiral at Sundown

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Shortly after splitting off a gaudy set of crepuscular rays and twisting itself deeply skyward over the sun, this slim bit lively supercell's structure show was far from finished, with an inflow tail spiraling wildly around, then into, a base shaped rather like a soda can.  Before altogether dying under the anvil of a newer one, this storm would be a gift to keep on giving. 7 S Manchester OK (13 … [Read more...]

Autumn Pond Surface

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Some of autumn's earliest fallen leaves decorated the surface of a bog pond, nestled within the quiet inland forests of Acadia National Park.  We found the cool, calm, dewy morning hike to be quite refreshing, both from an immersively sensory perspective, and from a lack of tourist throngs that disembark from cruise ships to descend upon the better-known coastal and mountaintop destinations.  The … [Read more...]

Western Sunset Crawler and Mammatus

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Normally, looking down the forward-flank core region toward a supercell isn't the ideal vantage.  In many ways, it wasn't here either.  I had busted with a figuratively dice-tossing, conditional  forecast along the Raton Mesa this day, then went after this southeastward-moving supercell late, leaving me distant.  I didn't have a "clean" approach available, through an area with few paved roads, … [Read more...]