SkyPix

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

Classic Early-Stage Supercell

By

Seldom does a supercell look more like the classical textbook depiction than this.  One clearly can see the wide updraft base across the lower middle (with small wall cloud), forward-flank core behind the trees at right, flanking line and tilted towers in the left middle half, an "inflow tail" spreading anvil above, and even overturning "knuckles" between the top of the flanking towers and anvil.  … [Read more...]

Charged Core

By

As the heavy-precip supercell progressed southeastward across northeast Colorado, on its journey from Nebraska to Nebraska, it hassled travelers at twilight with lightning, flooding rains and large hail.  Most of the lightning was inside cores.  A few flashes decorated the outer rim of the core, in this case the thick, rear-flank hook region, with the main low-level mesocyclone right down the … [Read more...]

Ribs Aloft

By

Two striking supercells can occupy different parts of the sky at the same time!  In this case, an older storm was being absorbed into this one's forward flank (off view at right, but here's a look).  This one already was producing a large amount of outflow, but managed t maintain enough surface-based inflow in its notch to the north to keep pounding along after the storm merger.  Meanwhile, the … [Read more...]

Supercell Absorption

By

Since I left Norman early that morning, I hadn't stepped foot out of the vehicle for more than about 10 minutes each, twice, to get gas and grab grub, while driving on the straightest path to this spot.  The second half of that 8-hour trek, from just north of Salina to here, saw a supercell form midday, deep in the Sandhills, and wander east-southeastward, looking ever-more impressive on radar.  … [Read more...]

Oklahoma Aurora Vertical

By

Here is a vertical view, for scale, of the amazing auroral band that hovered south of Norman's latitude for a couple hours in mid-spring 2024.  Clearly visible aurorae at this latitude are quite rare, truly a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence for many, the second for me, and the first since I've shot digital.  This display glowed from the impact on earth's upper atmosphere of an X-class flare and … [Read more...]

Tornadic Dust and Rain Tilt

By

As the prominent Kimball tornado grew slowly closer, some of the dust settled, and the circulation also took on more rain.  I don't think the tornado narrowed yet; it simply shed some of the dust it had lofted and centrifuged, which still made the vortex look somewhat bigger than it was.  It also tilted more, lending this classically spectacular tornadic appearance.  At this stage, vehicles in the … [Read more...]