SkyPix

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

Outflow through an Outhouse

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One round of outflow already had whistled through this forlorn and forgotten little latrine, courtesy of an HP supercell passage north of here and into the Little Snowy Range.  Here comes another!  The majesty of the land and sky of central Montana, where the Great Plains and the northern Rockies intersperse in a topographic tapestry nearly as complex as the atmosphere above, belies the simple and … [Read more...]

Earth Shadow

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Earth does cast a shadow through space; and it starts in the atmosphere.  It can be seen every clear day just after sunset, and just before sunrise, creating a sandwich effect.  The pinks are outside the shadow—hues of the setting sun refracted through the western sky before being reflected off upper-atmospheric particles in the east.  Since the shadow below has no direct sunlight, it is missing … [Read more...]

Squall Line in the Wichita Mountains

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Outflow is supposed to be the ultimate enemy of the storm chaser, but it can be quite beautiful!  Here, the turbulent underside of an arcus cloud passes over the Wichita Mountains of southwest Oklahoma, with the precipitation core of a squall line visible in the background.  The bright green fields of early May and the taupe-toned, partly scrub-covered Cambrian granite of the worn-out old … [Read more...]

West Thumb Colors

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Hot water pours into Yellowstone Lake from one of the main drainages of the West Thumb Geyser Basin, colorful bacteria and minerals staining the underlying beach in ochre tones.  A band of thunderstorms had moved through rather rapidly within the preceding hour, and by this time already passed the Absaroka Mountains in the distance, leaving behind a clean, chaotic and beautiful sky. Yellowstone … [Read more...]

Patricia Tornado

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This remarkable thunderstorm already had rewarded us for a very long day's drive from central Oklahoma by showing spectacular supercell structures, which continued here as a nifty bell-bottom shape to the main updraft region.  Normally with a supercell this high-based, carrying a nearly laminar cloud skirt with a rain-wrapped mesocyclone beneath, I wouldn't expect to see a tornado emerge within … [Read more...]