SkyPix

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

Thunder Water

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In July 2007, Lake Texoma reached near record levels and overflowed its emergency spillway for only the third time in its history.  As water continued to pour into the lake, the floodgates of one of the biggest U.S. reservoirs had to be opened wide for emergency release.  This is a close-up shot of the thundering result—an instantaneous glimpse of the turbulent and chaotically beautiful collision … [Read more...]

More Stratocumulus from Above

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Richly variegated convective textures greeted topside observers during a late afternoon flight over a deck of stratocumulus.  This scene reminded me of the sweeping views, likewise shot from airplanes, that often appear in modern religious video presentations to evoke a heavenly aura of inspiration.  The experience also reminded me of another one, on a fine aerial sunrise six years before. over … [Read more...]

Convection over Sea Fog

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In this beautiful coastal scene lies something of an atmospheric conundrum.  Sea fog itself is fairly common, especially over the shorelines of the Pacific Northwest.  Seeing convection of any sort atop the fog, however, was weird, considering that the cool, stable stratification needed for the fog deck seems to contradict the warmth and overturning characteristic beneath cumulus clouds.  The … [Read more...]

Atmospheric Strobe

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This storm erupted near the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming, trekked across the Thunder Basin National Grassland, then plowed into the northwestern Black Hills.  There, between Sundance and Newcastle, on the edge of the Great Plains, we intercepted the complex, often rain-wrapped supercell.  The mesocyclone (distant right, with thick and knobby tail cloud) soon would produce a brief tornado, but the … [Read more...]

Lenticular Depositing Rime

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Taken 21 minutes after a wide-angle shot of a lenticular cloud crowning Mt. Rainier, this one shows a closeup of the right (east) side of the cloud, which had been rising slowly.  As it climbed, the windy cloud left a deposit of rime ice, visible on the rocky crags high up the mountain's southeast flank. 1 SSW Paradise WA (18 Jul 11) Looking NNW 46.7736, -121.7433 … [Read more...]

Lenticular Cap on Mt. Rainier

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On this otherwise fair summer morning, Mount Rainier wore a tight hat—a lenticular cloud cap occupying a standing wave that was forced by the big Cascades volcano.  A separate and later zoom view reveals rime ice deposition from the cloud, high upon the volcano.  A special morning, it was!  We duly relaxed and took in the grandeur of the gorgeous scene at every scale, regardless of field of … [Read more...]