SkyPix

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

Scorpion Stinger Tornado

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Underneath some striking supercell structure, the Phillips tornado's condensation funnel evolved swiftly from a stubby bump to this contorted form resembling the painful end of a scorpion.  The small debris cloud beneath the "stinger" confirmed its status as full tornado.  Although this vortex wasn't very long-lived, it would have made a fine finale for a productive storm-observing day, just on … [Read more...]

Hay Bales in the Snow

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Here was a cold but peaceful farm scene, two days after central Oklahoma's Christmas Eve blizzard of 2009.  The more sheltered hay bales at rear sported snow caps, unlike the better-exposed bale close by.  Obstacle flow around the solo bale scoured out the dry moat in the snow.  The resulting patch of visible ground actually was teardrop-shaped, bigger on the right than on the left because the … [Read more...]

Sparky View from the Dock

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A heavy-precipitation (HP) supercell sloshed off into the distance, leaving behind refreshingly cool and moist air, a more robustly filled reservoir, some internally lit mammatus clouds, and one very nicely forked strike between its upper reaches and some distant several square inches of ground. The tan-orange glow on the water and cattails came from sodium vapor streetlights that illuminated the … [Read more...]

Tornado Time: North Side

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This wide-angle photo—featuring multilevel tail clouds under the vault—was taken a couple seconds before the companion shot of the storm's south side (a striated bell shape), with the two image domains overlapping in vicinity of the funnel at left.  A small, short-lived tornado soon would evolve from that funnel cloud, nearly atop U.S. Highway 34.  Whenever I see a tornado crossing a highway—but … [Read more...]

Tornado Time: South Side

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Over four hours and two hundred driving miles after observing a fantastic supercell in northeastern Kansas, here we were standing before another one, this time a strikingly beautiful yet menacing beast bearing down on us with a growing, bulbous funnel in tow. Within less than 30 seconds, the funnel cloud would become the first of two photogenic tornadoes we witnessed between Grand Island and … [Read more...]

Extended Spark

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This beautiful blast of high amperage, delicately formed yet deadly if touched, sliced through a darkening twilight along the Colorado-Nebraska border.  Very seldom, if ever, have I seen such a lengthy lightning discharge below the cloud base that also never reached the ground. 15 SSW Kimball NE (13 Jun 11) Looking WNW 41.0168, -103.6879 … [Read more...]