SkyPix

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

Structure on the South Plains

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Normally, being east of a southeastward-moving, heavy-precipitation (HP) supercell is a lousy idea, both meteorologically and tactically.  They tend to curl the forward-flank precip region (which can contain damaging hail and flooding rains) eastward then southeastward, rendering this view of the main updraft region at this distance nearly impossible, and our storm-relative position decidedly … [Read more...]

Owachomo Natural Bridge

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Yes, here's another waterless "Water Work."  When it's not waterless, that water works well.  Spanning 180 feet, this large natural arch is composed of a tube of especially resistant Permian Cedar Mesa sandstone in Natural Bridges National Monument.  Freeze-thaw cycles happen throughout the cool season when water in wet rock freezes to crystals, which expands and pries the grains apart from their … [Read more...]

Low-Tide Railay Sunset

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One evening after a fine evening on Railay Beach, came another.  Peaceful waters of the Andaman Sea supported sailboats anchored in the twilight, while low tide broke reflections of the most fiery parts of the sky into little pieces.  It was just another easy end to a calm, tropical day.  Railay Beach, Thailand (1 Feb 25) Looking WSW 8.0096, 98.8375 … [Read more...]

Elevated Whale’s Mouth

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Swerving this way and that, a strange but explainable cloud formation hovered over the north-central Nebraska Sandhills like a giant, fluid abstract painting.  The core at right -- earlier stronger, but now dying -- produced a shelf cloud atop a deepening layer of stable outflow from other storms that already had cooled the airmass near the surface substantially.  Still cooler, yet still buoyant, … [Read more...]

Arching Incandescence

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Kilauea's Episode 33 wasn't the biggest or longest of the fountaining eruptive pulses during this sequence, but offered unique moments all its own, including pretty much any freeze frame's delivering a one-time pattern of twinkling elements.  Here, countless tons of solidifying and molten chunks of incandescent rock -- small as thimbles or large as a school bus -- descend up to a thousand feet, … [Read more...]

HP State-Crossing Supercell

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[Click Image to Enlarge] Likely not the last, and far from the first to follow me in haste and fury down I-70 into Kansas, this heavy-precip supercell resulted from the earlier merger of an outflow-dominant storm with a foregoing tornadic supercell in Colorado.   This, in turn, would be absorbed into a long, severe squall line that would yield wild and menacing skies, as well as severe winds, as … [Read more...]