SkyPix

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

Cirrus Fibratus Vertebratus

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Solar eclipse day dawned nicely for the event to come in a bit over six hours.  A nearly clear sky was thinly decorated by a crisscrossing waveform of cirrus not often seen, and even more seldom shot by me:  the vertebratus subspecies of cirrus fibratus.  The name, of course, comes from the resemblance of the smaller waveforms to vertebrae, or more precisely ribs attached thereto.  The old cliche, … [Read more...]

Rusty Sky

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Before losing direct sunlight altogether, a gloriously lit field of post-MCS mammatus clouds in northern Missouri evolved from orange to deep rust-red—a shade I haven't seen often, even in sunset skies.  As the storm complex responsible for this brilliant backside scene progressed southeastward in the twilight, its mammatus field would serve as muse for several photogenic anvil-crawler lightning … [Read more...]

Translucidus without Much Lucidity

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This was a long chase day, having begun in Chadron, NE, with lunch in Rapid City, and a storm complex intercepted from the Wyoming/South Dakota border through the Badlands.  It ended with peace and fulfillment, before a short drive to Chamberlain for the night.   After letting the complex pass over me in the Badlands, I eased east to Murdo to fuel up, then headed south of town a short distance, … [Read more...]

Dakota behind the Storms

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Sunset hour on the Great Plains of South Dakota had multiple magical moments packed into one sublime experience.  After a glorious showing of anticrepusculars and a sepia sky toward the setting sun, the day's last rays got under a deck of altocumulus clouds trailing an thunderstorm complex, and lit up lower fractocumulus scud.  The entire time, meadowlarks sang in the cool outflow breezes, and the … [Read more...]

Badlands Blow ’24

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While not as extremely intense as the 2020 derecho, the 2024 Badlands complex still produced severe gusts, and an array of dark cloud formations to contrast with the layered and scenic sedimentary colors of the ground here and grass range to the immediate north.  Storm wind out here on the dissected High Plains is inhibited only by turbulence from interactions with the hills and gullies.  It yield … [Read more...]

Campus Mothership

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After approaching Norman from the OKC area with a stacked-plate form and the oft-fulfilled promise of severe hail, the increasingly wild-looking and more sunset-toned storm drew closer, its slowly rotating wall cloud more a product of strongly hail-cooled air from the nearby core.  As it passed just north through east of campus, the main updraft region's cloud form assumed a "mothership" … [Read more...]