SkyPix

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

Slim Funnel and Wall Cloud

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Simple, elegant, and to some, terrifying:  the sight of a rotating wall cloud with a well-developed funnel signals a mature and intense supercell over the rolling plains of the northeastern Texas Panhandle.   Although we never saw any debris or dust with the circulation, the soaked ground may have prevented us from determining more surely whether this vortex ever became a weak tornado.  This storm … [Read more...]

Canadian Tornado in Texas

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A broad, significant tornado spins through the countryside just outside the Hemphill County seat, making this (what else?) a Canadian tornado in Texas.  The parent supercell produced several more, but this was the most substantial and best-photographed.  Unfortunately, despite good NWS warnings, it also injured three oil-field workers, for whom our wishes and prayers were for a quick and full … [Read more...]

7-11 Lightning: Strike Six

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The last of the "7-11 Lightning" series, featuring a seemingly ordinary summertime multicell firing brilliant discharges for great distances in assorted directions, concludes with this wickedly forked, split strike.  The leader traveled from somewhere deep inside the storms' middle–upper levels, out of the cloud, through clear air, more cloud, more clear air, then finally a rain foot of a … [Read more...]

Reflections on the Trinity

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On this cool, post-convective evening in late May, the sky treated six million people in the Metroplex to a long-lived sunset for the ages.  Only a few dozen motorists and photographers saw it from this vantage, high above the Trinity River on the Sylvan Avenue bridge.  Returning from storms near Fairfield, I had mapped this viewing angle out in my imagination, armed with an intimate knowledge of … [Read more...]