SkyPix

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

Haboob

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Dense outflow from a line of severe thunderstorms over southwest KS generated this convectively generated sandstorm—a haboob.  The angled edge of the dust and sand plume, extending downward and leftward from the arcus cloud's tip, sharply marks the outflow pool.  Yes, we let it engulf us, to be greeted by measured winds up to 68 mph and intense blasts of sand which scratched and pitted my … [Read more...]

Plume Preceding Squall Line

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On a zigzagging NW drive toward a growing line of storms, we noticed an expanding, fast-rising, rather voluminous smoke plume appearing to emanate from some point directly along our projected path.  This wasn't simply someone's pre-rainfall trash-burning exercise either--at least not anymore. The smoke was wafting northwestward within the inflow air mass of the thunderstorms.  Thin anvil cirrus … [Read more...]

Black and Blue

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Black outcrops of vesicular basalt jut into and out of the Blue Lagoon, offering otherworldly microcosms of a strange and stark place.  Though the lake is artificial, the water is not--drawn from underground at high pressure, tapped for steam-turbine and heat energy, then disposed into a series of low-lying areas on a nearby lava field.  Part of the lagoon is a spa resort; other areas (such as … [Read more...]

Eastern Austrian Eventide

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A gloriously lengthy sunset east of Vienna evolved from a splash of overhead cloud color to this brilliant orange-yellow banding on the textured base of an altostratus deck.   Notice the reflected reddish glow on the east-facing, normally dark side of the stratus deck, beyond the trees.  That light came from the higher, brighter clouds, zigzagging its way from the sun to the lens (and ultimately … [Read more...]

Shallow Cumulonimbus

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This small, squatty cumulonimbus cloud, in a very picturesque setting, moved quickly toward the SE from the Minnesota Arrowhead over Lake Superior.  It eventually developed a visible precipitation core well offshore.  Several broader and slightly deeper thunderheads had developed earlier the same day inland, over stronger surface heating.  The high bases came from a lack of richer low level … [Read more...]

Angular Atmosphere

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Being a nonlinear, often chaotic fluid, seldom does the atmosphere give us such an uncanny intersection of visual lines and angles!  A complex of thunderstorms to the right heaved forth a load of cold outflow air that undercut warm and moist surface air, forming the shelf cloud that points toward the left.  Meanwhile, far above and behind the shelf, the southern anvil edge caught the waning rays … [Read more...]