SkyPix

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

Menacing Mesocyclone

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Rapid motions around a menacing wall cloud, with a pronounced lowering in the middle, compel the observer to pay very close attention.  Though the lower cloud was turning, with rain curtains orbiting it, no dust or debris appeared beneath it at at this time.  If the circulation was tornadic, it was only very weakly so.  Meanwhile, scud tags on all sides raced around and into this formation.  See … [Read more...]

Rear-Flank Gust Front

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As so often happens, a late May afternoon on the Great Plains brought a colorful and dynamic sky of clouds and storms. A somewhat high-based supercell cruised past us to the north, painting this resplendent sky scene. The mesocyclone, which was located behind the lower right part of the curving shelf cloud, didn't look too dangerous at that point, and to nobody's surprise, the storm was spewing a … [Read more...]

Speed Limit: 45

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Does this also apply to boats? Is the speed limit faster here since it is a lake instead of a tree-lined river? Beings from another world may ask such questions upon witnessing this sight, created as Lake Texoma overran a designated spillway plain that also contains a normally busy road. 5 NNW Denison TX (8 Jul 7) Looking SW 33.816, -96.5734 … [Read more...]

Red Bird in a Redbud

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This woebegone, fluffed and snowflake-flecked little cardinal stood out brilliantly against the backdrop of wintertime shades of gray.  The branches of his perch of choice—a redbud, the Oklahoma state tree—hung encased in broken nodules of ice.  His mate didn't seem any more pleased about having to endure such conditions. Norman OK (29 Jan 10) Looking SW … [Read more...]

Tall Wall beyond the Wheat

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This High Plains beauty didn't last very long, but made a couple of spellbound storm observers pay very close attention for several minutes. Although the parent supercell was outflow-dominant, the resulting rush of cold air from the precip at left held back just enough, in the face of strong inflow winds, to allow a tight, deep, narrow mesocyclone in low levels. Vertical motion up the right wall … [Read more...]

Unintended Archway

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Ice-laden young trees behind the University of Oklahoma's Cate Center buckled under their burden of ice, and over a sidewalk.   Fortunately, given their small size and flexibility, these trees lost few substantial limbs and could be retrained back into the vertical, once relieved of the load by melting. Norman, OK (21 Dec 13) Looking W 35.2034, -97.4445 … [Read more...]