SkyPix

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

Tornado and Loop Vortex

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As the significant Canadian tornado slowly narrowed, two scuddy, filamentous funnels in the near upper foreground quickly formed and merged, while orbiting the main mesocyclone from left to right.  Within less than 10 seconds, the feature coiled into a distorted rope and vanished.  It's impossible to say if the loop vortex formed a closed toroid inside the cloud aloft, but in such a turbulent, … [Read more...]

Wall Cloud and Wildflowers

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Treat yourself to mesocyclonic eye candy, courtesy of a midafternoon supercell which formed near Anton, NW of Lubbock.  There's nothing quite like a wall cloud and wildflowers to complement any story of the Great Plains!  Note the low-hanging tail cloud extending NNE (rightward), from the wall cloud to the top of the rain foot produced by the intense core at right.  Rain-cooled air was being drawn … [Read more...]

Altocumulus Undulatus

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Classical undulating altocumuli sweep high above the Nebraska Panhandle.  This set of undulatus was not as laminar as many, and might be considered a hybrid with castellanus because of the distinct convective elements riding atop some of the bands.  Although we were on the way from a great South Dakota chase the day before to a date of destiny with some Kansas tornadoes the next day, the striking … [Read more...]

Mirroring the Foggy Sun

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For this scene we can credit still waters on a cool morning, translucent fog slowly thinning in the eastern sky to broadcast the light (with corona) to the surface, and the fortuitous arrival of a most deeply grateful observer and photographer whose camera was at the ready.  From the cyclonically violent to the gentle and serene, the atmosphere presents endless ways to captivate the alert and … [Read more...]

Stalactite Attack

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This portion of the main Carlsbad Cavern room offers the illusion that hundreds of needle-sharp teeth are pointed down and poised to chomp.   Instead, each stalactite is the collective residue of a single dripping seep, solidified from solution a drop at a time over many millennia.  Amidst them sits a bottle-shaped stalagmite that has grown into the ceiling. 4 W Whites City NM (9 Jun 14) … [Read more...]