SkyPix

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

Millsap Supercell 2

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The Millsap supercell organized even further, tightening its rotation at all levels while forming two wall clouds with two occlusions in rapid sequence.  Here, the decayed remains of the older wall cloud can be seen in the middle, while at slightly nearer right, a bigger and lower one protrudes, soon to wrap in rain, become tornadic, and unwrap again.   Looking at the big picture (literally!) the … [Read more...]

Millsap Supercell 1

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A robustly structured supercell looms over one of America's main transportation arteries: Interstate 20, west of Dallas.   In this area, rugged lowland terrain covered by scrub forest makes storm observing hard; a combination of high spots and openings is needed.  This hilltop, conveniently coinciding with the Brock exit and a construction-zone staging area, was good in a pinch.  The storm itself … [Read more...]

Sunrise Stratocumulus from Above

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What had appeared from ground to be a drab, dreary, flat stratus deck underwent marvelous visual alchemy to golden cumuliform turrets, selectively bathed by virtue of height in the rising rays of the sun.  How perspectives can change simply by seeing the other side... over eastern OK (3 Dec 1) Looking S … [Read more...]

Doppler Ray-dar

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In the early–mid 1990s, the National Weather Service, in word and deed, established the WSR-88D (a Doppler radar) as its own "ray of hope".  This shot, therefore, would be ideal for a promotional brochure touting its marvelous powers.  Actually, the radar dome located on OU's North Campus was fortuitously juxtaposed in this early-morning view, with crepuscular rays beaming through a notch in some … [Read more...]

Sandhill Crane Sunrise 2

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For a few weeks, this valley amid America becomes the closest scene possible to the American Serengeti of Lewis and Clark, a spectacle of wholly wild sight and sound that every Great Plains enthusiast must witness at least once in life.  The Platte River population of sandhill cranes slumbers by dusk and rises by dawn, soaring aloft and out to the corn fields daily for a few weeks, in order … [Read more...]

Sandhill Crane Sunrise 1

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Every spring, the sandhill cranes fly en masse from the Texas coast to Canada, Alaska and extreme eastern Siberia.  A map of the migration looks like a lopsided hourglass with the narrows in central Nebraska.  Fed by day with leftover field corn from the previous autumn's harvest, these cranes congregate by night in an amazing roost, a loud avian city of millions of primordial cries, … [Read more...]