SkyPix

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

Congestus Aerial

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Our plane flew over, around, and occasionally through a large field of deep convective clouds that was erupting over the high country of northern Colorado, on approach to Denver's airport. The flight provided a clean and crisply defined look at this large field of cumulus congestus, with more mature towers and cumulonimbus in the background. The view also was so bright as to be nearly blinding … [Read more...]

Busted Windshield from Within

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Fortunately this wasn't my ride. Unfortunately, it was that of friends who were in a two-vehicle storm-intercept  caravan with me, somehow getting plunked by a rogue hailstone of at least three inches in diameter along the edge of a core.   We were headed back W, hoping to get a good sunset view of the storm's rear--just not through this.  And now, as Paul Harvey used to say: the rest of the … [Read more...]

Solano Mesocyclonic

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A long-lived, cyclic supercell gradually organized over the southern fringe of the Sangre de Cristo Range, taking nearly two hours just to move completely out of the mountains before it headed SE across the high plains and tablelands of northeastern New Mexico.  This big, broad and moderately rotating wall cloud represented the storm's peak organization.  Unlike another supercell to its northeast, … [Read more...]

Twilight Storm in the Wichita Mountains

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Although this storm's updraft was so strongly tilted that its top was way off-screen to the right, it still maintained an updraft strong enough to separate charge--and brilliantly so!  This vivid internal flash outlined a wonderful array of bands and tiers, all transpiring beneath stars that speckled the cobalt tones of a springtime twilight. 5 NNE Cache, OK (23 Apr 14) Looking W 34.7101, … [Read more...]

Bolt beyond Backroad

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This high-based dryline storm blasted a load of electricity through the cloud-ground gap, both to equalize charge on a temporary basis and to let us know that proceeding further down the Oklahoma red-dirt road would be riskier.   The threat there arose not only from lightning, but from just enough rain to turn the road into a slippery mire of thick red-clay mud.   Having experienced that before, … [Read more...]