SkyPix

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

Sky Worm

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In a final encore, a tornado emerges from the rain one last time and stretches out, its condensation funnel taking on the shape of a worm against the slate-blue background of the supercell's precipitation area.  This tornado began in Nebraska, within less than two miles of the Colorado border.  Initially a tall, thin, dusty tube (that stage not shown because of driving for position and poor … [Read more...]

Sun Pillar

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Usually, sun pillars (right) develop under thin, high clouds that drop plate-shaped ice crystals (snow) which reflect the low-angle sunlight back to the attentive eyeball.  Here, some of those crystals were being launched by convective clouds—specifically altocumulus formations that earlier offered a beautifully geometric pattern in the sky.  In wintertime, ice-process altocumuli are common; the … [Read more...]

Snow Shadows in the Woods

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Textures of snow, crossed by tree shadows, create a sparkling, banded wintertime landscape.  Wintertime in the snowy woods is one of the quietest experiences, the silence broken only by the occasional, lonesome call of a cold and hungry bird, or soft puff of snow cascading off a branch. Norman OK (6 Dec 13) Looking NW … [Read more...]

The Window

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One of the great places of the Great Plains, "The Window" or "Keyhole" of Monument Rocks offers a peek not only through an eroded butte, but into the power of water—drops at a time.  Once, around a million years ago, a blanket of High Plains sediments, washed by streams from the Rockies, covered this area much deeper than any of the Cretaceous chalk which forms the buttes here.  Water carried … [Read more...]

Turbulent Underslope

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Rib-like cloud formations rose up the slope of the inside of a shelf cloud, also known as the "whale's mouth", turbulently ascending atop the cold density current extruded from a line of severe thunderstorms.   Simply staring at the chaotic motions of such clouds can be mesmerizing, almost hypnotic, such that one must not lose awareness that a wall of wind and rain soon will hit.   Nine years … [Read more...]

Rain-Wrapped “Pseudonado”

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In the deepening darkness of twilight, a scene such as this is lower in contrast and dimmer to the eyeballs than to a camera set to long exposure and low f-stop.  Spotters need to concentrate intently on suspicious features, particularly when they are persistent and "in the right place", such as the conical lowering shown here.  A fortuitously positioned rain shaft appeared to connect the lowering … [Read more...]