SkyPix

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

Cloud-Banded Sunset Sandwich

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Multiple cloud layers in different places seem to sandwich the setting sun, high across Colorado's vast chunk of the Great Plains.  At about the same time, but in the opposite direction, this light brilliantly illuminated the back side of a storm complex.  Swivel your head!  Scan from horizon to zenith in all directions!  Something interesting and beautiful could be happening, sometimes in two … [Read more...]

Cumulus Mediocris, Abandoned Windmill and Pumphouse

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Biding time and watching the sky, while choosing which of two storm-initiation areas to target, we found this great little relic of the Great Plains heritage of western Oklahoma.   The blades still spun, creaky and squeaky, even if rust kept the rudder from pointing them into the southerly breezes.  In the moisture-rich warm sector air, cumulus mediocris clouds, along with a little cumulus humilis … [Read more...]

Off the High Ground

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Just north of Harrison NEb, an unmarked road drops off high ground held up by resistant sandstone and ash beds, rolling down through the western tongue of Pine Ridge forest cover and onto a lower level of the High Plains.  On this moist morning, following the prior evening's passage of three supercells and their heavy rain cores, radiation fog held strongly in the lower tier of terrain while … [Read more...]

Dumas Dominance

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Despite lasting for many hours from near the Texas/New Mexico border eastward across the Panhandle, and being sampled intensively by the armada of research vehicles from the V.O.R.T.EX. project, this big, powerful, imposing, awe-inspiring, sky-dominating "Dumas supercell" only could muster a few briefly tornadic circulations.  Nonetheless, it became the subject of several storm-scale research … [Read more...]

Gloom in Dumas

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After seeing a small tornado from a remnant, occluded circulation, we headed E expeditiously to get abeam (and ultimately ahead) of the large, strong, ominous mesocyclone that was headed for Dumas.  The storm meant serious business.  When this scene came into view, we had to stop and take a good look, even though the main updraft region of the supercell had gained several miles' distance on us.  … [Read more...]

Hung Low

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Within just a minute, this wall cloud had evolved from a pointy, banded feature to this very low-hanging and flatter form, still rotating rapidly, still monochromatically colored and textured, and still worth watching for potential tornado development.  Although this now-blocky wall cloud soon would erode, the old and occluded circulation didn't go away.  Instead, it started wrapping in rain, then … [Read more...]