SkyPix

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

Blue-Hour Thunderhead

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This remarkable little storm complex got a more prolific with its CG lightning later, but I also enjoyed this phase, with sharply defined updraft pulses in varying stages of maturity, from oldest (right) to newest (left).  In the "blue hour", its internal light complemented the reflected twilight nicely, with the CG flash as a potent punctuation mark. 4 W Sharon Springs KS (4 Jun 22) Looking … [Read more...]

Sunset on the American Prairie

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At the end of another storm day, as concludes many a day out on the High Plains, the sun sets with yet another unique, kaleidoscopic cloud arrangement.  Many places lay claim to consistently grand sunsets, including a lot with more water, mountains, and/or funding from chambers of commerce to build websites and print tourism brochures.  Yet right out here, on the American prairie, the sundowns go … [Read more...]

Flickering through Mammatus

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High-amperage sparks tickled the mammatus-festooned underside of the anvil region trailing a departing thunderstorm complex in southern Oklahoma.   This activity didn't produce lightning profusely, once we found a place to stop and shoot, but the few discharges it had were much appreciated. 2 W Davis OK (15 May 22) Looking SSW 34.503, -97.155 … [Read more...]

Windshield Hail Crater

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Drive into a supercell core hurling 3–4-inch hail, and you soon shall understand misery and destruction.  Fortunately this wasn't mine, though I have experienced this very sort of crushing defeat on a couple occasions (16 May 1991 and 28 March 2007)—both at the hands of classic supercells that also produced at least 5 tornadoes each.  Instead, this was in the parking lot of a La Junta motel where … [Read more...]

Deep Sundown, Nebraska Panhandle

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Great Plains sunsets rightly have a reputation for brilliance and splendor, but this one was royalty among the high echelon.  First, it unexpectedly painted the western sky in a spectacular light (with pillar!).  Then, even as the overhead colors started to fade, the intricately textured clouds in the farthest part of the western sky seemed to ignite with stunning depth of both color and pattern, … [Read more...]

Interstate Startle

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An electrified twilight sky, thanks to the back side of a supercell-containing storm complex, kept spitting sparks as ambient light faded.  The two cloud-to-ground discharges happened within just a few seconds, but were separated by many miles between the main core region (distant left) and the translucent, trailing anvil area of light precipitation (right).  The latter lit up the lives of … [Read more...]