SkyPix

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

McClellan Lake Tornado

By

This taught me not to give up on even a seemingly outflow-dominant supercell.  Just 20 minutes earlier, we sat in dusty, frigid, northwest winds, gushing from an old mesocyclone that had become rain-wrapped and suffocated by cold air.  After we moved southeast, a new mesocyclone formed along an inflection point in the outflow boundary, and beneath some high-based but intense updrafts.  The new … [Read more...]

Sunset Mammatus, Kansas High Plains

By

This reward of sunset-illuminated mammatus awaited at the end of a circuitous chase day through parts of five states—Colorado, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas (NW tip), Oklahoma (again), and Kansas.  While we saw many interesting scenes and several photogenic tableaus during the day, the last rays of the diurnal sun offered the richest and most wholly fulfilling High Plains memories.  In ten minutes … [Read more...]

Basal Basalt, Svartifoss

By

Spray from Svartifoss (Black Falls) ricochets off hexagonal chunks of columnar basalt that fractured off the ledges above, creating a ghostly outline around the rocks in a short, daylight time exposure.   The moderately steep hike up to this phenomenal natural formation was worth every step, for such a soothing scene, along with the sound and feel of the spray, served the necessity of rest ever so … [Read more...]

Rotating Storm

By

More than twisting in the wind, this storm was made of twisting wind.  It developed near the Front Range of Colorado and moved toward the east-southeast, encountering a vertical profile of winds that veered from southeasterly to westerly and increased with height.  This is the the classical ingredient of wind shear in the recipe for the atmosphere to cook up a supercell.  The band of cloud … [Read more...]

Olympic Coast Reflections

By

Soon to set behind clouds, some of the last sunshine in the conterminous United States beamed crepuscular rays across the sky, a beautiful backdrop to the sea-stack festooned coastline.  For periods a few seconds at a time, a certain stage of wave retreat left a shallow shimmer on the sand, one I'll call mercurial in two contexts:  changeability and visual reflectivity.  The experience offered a … [Read more...]

Wavy Overhangs

By

The howling north winds of the previous day's blizzard left stunning snow cornices on the tops of steep, southward-facing slopes, such as the one here abutting a roadside ditch.  All sorts of wacky and weird formations are possible when microflows set up around obstacles, such as this partly fallen fencepost that seemingly supported the arching part of the banded cornice formation.  Somehow, these … [Read more...]