SkyPix

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

Magpie Falls (Ontario)

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Tumbling over hard, Precambrian igneous rocks, the Magpie River will take a very, very long time to erode these cascades upstream.  The remaining part of Magpie High Falls, not submerged by the reservoir above it, isn't outrageously high, with a vertical drop of about 75 feet.  Still, this is one of the widest of the dozens of waterfalls that adjoin Lake Superior.  As on all the other streams … [Read more...]

East Texas Sundown

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A slow process leaving Norman, and some delays getting there, meant a "late" arrival at my dad's gravesite.  So what?  This was the blessing that greeted me at the end of my visit, as if this was how it was supposed to happen all along.  A long zoom into the most colorful part of the sky was the same thing my eyes did, searching for the strongest color and deepest meaning of the moment.  A … [Read more...]

Middle Gooseberry Falls

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The largest and most complex of the Gooseberry Falls series, its middle cascade spreads the Gooseberry River across a series of stair-stepping ledges of Precambrian lava flows (basalt and diabase) of varying textures.  The water reaches Lake Superior soon, for the river's mouth is just a few hundred yards downstream.  One of my favorite views actually was through an uncommon gap in the forest … [Read more...]

Missing Convenience-Store Roof

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[Part 3 of 3]  The gas station, from which the February 2023 east Norman tornado's sign piece lofted into my yard, also lost its roof to the vortex. This exposed inventory inside (most of which had been blown out and/or cleaned up by this time] to rainwater.  The roof was metal, but not well-attached to the walls, and peeled southeastward (rightward) like a sardine-can lid.  [Back to Part … [Read more...]

Transported-Sign Source

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[Part 2 of 3]  By itself, this is nothing unusual at all for a tornado:  a gas-station sign blown out of its mount and deposited "Who knows where?" This time, however, I already knew where:  my yard, where a piece from the upper middle had landed.  The only unknown was whether it was the part of the sign facing this way, or the other; each side was identical.  The fact the pump overhand remained … [Read more...]

Instantly Identified Tornado Transport

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[Part 1 of 3]  The morning after the 26 February east Norman tornado, whose northwest (weak) side crossed our property, I found this sign piece with an unmistakable origin:  a Sinclair gas station up the path a couple miles from our place.   The source was obvious immediately, with the top portions of the "l" and "a" visible.  It had been dislodged, broken, swirled around the vortex an unknown … [Read more...]