SkyPix

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

Crumpled Vehicle

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This image illustrates why cars and trucks are bad places to be in tornadoes.  The Andover, KS, tornado of 26 Apr 1991 mangled this vehicle—probably a van or early model SUV—beyond recognition.  It was rolled, battered by debris and ripped by winds near maximum tornado force.  The tornado produced F5 damage in a subdivision of large, well-built homes about a half mile SW of this location, and was … [Read more...]

Badlands Clay Pan

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Recession of high water, followed by many rainless and sunstroked days, left behind this alien landscape backed by the Badlands of South Dakota, from which the clay sediments drained to settle on this hard-baked pan.  Another angle of the scene offers a smaller-scale view. 2 NE Interior SD (16 Jun 12) Looking NW 43.7518, -101.9492 … [Read more...]

Geometrically Cracked

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Patterns of horizontal and vertical cracking form naturally geometric art.  The sun-dried field of clay was deposited during the calming of a water-mud slurry that had cascaded from nearby erosive badlands.  The smooth-sided, basically rectilinear pattern to the cracks indicates a young deposit—likely just one or two generations of drying since the creation of the sediment.  Here's the broader … [Read more...]

Arcus over Turtle Mountains

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Behind the previous evening's supercell-laden cold front, behind post-frontal rains in the morning, and beneath a cold-core, upper-level low, just enough moisture lingered to support one more round of storms.  We had penetrated the morning rain on the way westward, targeting not convection, per se, but instead a couple of days of rest and relaxation in the so-called Turtle Mountains (actually a … [Read more...]

Crescent Sun

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What a treat it was to be able to set up along the High Plains of the Texas-New Mexico border for the 2012 annular eclipse, the day after a great supercell and lightning show in western Oklahoma!  In an annular eclipse, the moon is far enough away from Earth in its orbit that its apparent diameter is smaller than that of the sun.  That imparted a nice, hooking crescent shape to the sun … [Read more...]

Seibert Supercell: Prelude to Destruction

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One supercell formed in the immediate lee of the Front Range, over Denver, then headed eastward across the Plains, growing and adding new cells as it went.  By this time, about a hundred miles to the east, it had grown into a photogenic, outflow-dominant complex of storms with the supercell embedded, moving eastward at least 50 mph.   We had very little time to stay at this spot and appreciate the … [Read more...]