SkyPix

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

Cirrocumulus over Camelback

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On a dry, cool winter day, high astride Camelback Mountain, cirrocumuli wafted over a palo verde tree growing hardily out of a soiled notch in Precambrian granite.  This scene made a great excuse to sit back against a boulder, relax for a spell, and watch the sky, on the otherwise strenuous hike. Phoenix, AZ (8 Jan 15) Looking N 33.5144, -111.9605 … [Read more...]

Slapout Sunset

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What can be a more fulfilling finish for a long journey to, under, around and through violent thunderstorms than a fiery Great Plains sunset?  This was not a high-priority "chase day" for most storm enthusiasts, being well after the peak of the season; and the few who made it out went after some messy heavy-precip (HP) severe storms 150 miles farther E along the Kansas/Oklahoma border.  But when … [Read more...]

Thunderless Mammatus

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Sometimes mammatus clouds don't arise from a thunderstorm.  In this case, a dense chunk of cirrostratus clouds developed pronounced bags of mammati, probably with internal motions and processes similar to those in thunderstorm anvils (which also are thick cirrostratus plumes).  The technical name for mammatus clouds associated with a thunderstorm is cumulonimbus mammatus; so for consistency this … [Read more...]

Sunflower from Flood Wash

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At some point fairly recent to this shot, a sheet of floodwater rushed across these flatlands from the eroding arroyos, pinnacles and bluffs of Badlands National Park.  The torrent was strong enough from right to left to flatten grass, and to keep it pinned down with clay deposits before new growth occurred.  Brief but intense deluges of rain are the main sculptors of this harsh but photogenic … [Read more...]

Northern Borderland Squall Line

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Bringing replenishing rains to the many lakes of the "Turtle Mountains"—the wooded terrain rise visible at distant right—a band of low-topped storms churned ever closer.  At this point, the tip of the arcus cloud passed due S of us, offering a fine compositional symmetry with the curvature of the roadway.  This is very nearly the farthest north one can intercept a storm in the continental United … [Read more...]

Thunder Water

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In July 2007, Lake Texoma reached near record levels and overflowed its emergency spillway for only the third time in its history.  As water continued to pour into the lake, the floodgates of one of the biggest U.S. reservoirs had to be opened wide for emergency release.  This is a close-up shot of the thundering result—an instantaneous glimpse of the turbulent and chaotically beautiful collision … [Read more...]