SkyPix

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

CGs through a Downburst

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From within, lightning conspired with external twilight to illuminate a blue-hour thunderhead in western Kansas, near "Weskan" of course.  Here, a downburst descended from the backside, hit ground and took off horizontally, forming a rain foot through which the bottom of the left flash penetrated.  Though the preceding step leader travels faster than wind, it can be blown, and the leftward-tilted … [Read more...]

White Scud, Dark Background

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An early-morning thunderstorms complex retreated to the southeast and east, leaving behind a fresh pool of outflow, crowned with fractocumulus scud in cool northeasterlies.  Emerging sunshine illuminated the scud against the dark pall of nimbostratus and elevated stratocumulus closer to the storms' rear.  This process rendered one of my favorite lighting arrangements in the sky:  bright clouds … [Read more...]

Closer Tornado, Harder View

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Sometimes, tornadoes become more difficult to see with decreasing distance.  The dusty "Kimball tornado" approached, and I began to hear its whistling swirl through the field about a mile away (lower center).  All the while, it also became more diffusely defined near the edge.  That's rather important when judging one's own safe distance!  Right after this, I backed off southward a couple miles … [Read more...]

Organizing Supercell with Wall Cloud

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Early in this supercell's life cycle, on a day when a lot of parameters favored tornado potential and promise was high for storm observers to witness something special, it rapidly organized a large updraft base and large, low, slowly rotating wall cloud seen here.   Alas, this was as much as the storm would show for a few cycles until it got well northeast and turned into a nicely structured but … [Read more...]

CG from Chaotic Sky

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A supercell that formed in Montana—just north of an outflow-reinforced warm front—continued to cloak itself behind a deck of warm-advection clouds, including intermittent areas of asperatus, spitting occasional CG lightning, while churning southeastward across the northeastern corner of Wyoming.  Take out the northern Plains landscape, and swap in one with more, taller trees, and this could be a … [Read more...]

Stratocumulus under Cirrus, Dallas

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Two days before a historic solar eclipse, the late-afternoon "Golden Hour" painted its reflective presence across the ever-majestic Dallas skyline, beneath a deeply layered sky of scattered low stratocumulus clouds and a broken deck of high cirrus, with a couple contrails streaked through for good measure.  Almost 16 years earlier, I was right under the nearest notch of the tallest building, … [Read more...]