SkyPix

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

Secondary Mesocyclone

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A large, complex supercell that had organized near Lampasas turned even harder rightward, churning south-southeastward along and west of US-281 past Burnet toward Marble Falls.  [Yes, I was chasing in the Hill Country in May, after doing so in April, and would again in June!]  Fortunately, I had left the crowds trying in vain to see inside the larger, nasty, rain-wrapped mesocyclone in trees and … [Read more...]

Lampasas Masses

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A previously disorganized but deep cluster of multicell storms west of Lampasas, in a very moist and favorably sheared environment, coalesced into a large supercell southwest of town, sporting a very wide base.  I knew this storm meant business when it turned hard right, while over the span of around 10 minutes, inflow picked up from a modest breeze of less than 10 kt to a stiff, steady, roaring … [Read more...]

Rotating but Nontornadic

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This behaved much like most wall clouds I've ever seen:  rotating moderately, perhaps briefly fast, with strong upward scud motion from the tail portion pointing to the forward flank.  Yet it failed to produce a tornado.  That was a good thing for some Hill Country acreage subdivisions in the area!  Despite a favorable environmental parameter space of CAPE, deep shear and low-level shear, this … [Read more...]

Colorado Color Bands

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Off to the right of a broad, sparky, tiered supercell, its high-based, forward-flank core region spawned a laminar outflow cloud that paralleled a band of distant sunset light.  All that lay beyond a nicely green, rolling landscape of short-grass prairie so archetypical for the High Plains. 8 NNW Siebert CO (4 Jun 14) Looking NW 39.4176, -102.896 … [Read more...]

Aspermont Five

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Part of a short but intense lightning flurry just southeast of town, this set of cloud-to-ground blasts erupted in just a few seconds, sending out a roller coaster of booms, crackles and rumbles as their sound waves interacted and overlapped.   To locals, it probably was just another stormy night in northwest Texas.  To this appreciative observer, it was electrical eye candy, and a real treat.  … [Read more...]

Elevated Supercell and Shelf

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A long, graceful, gently sinuous shelf cloud rushed outward on rear-flank outflow that could penetrate the boundary layer.  That outflow mainly came from the storm in middle background—one of a series of east-northeastward-moving supercells on this day that were undercut by a slow-moving cold front about the time they would mature.  Even though I had light north winds at this location—ahead of … [Read more...]