SkyPix

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

Tornadoes about to Merge

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Shortly after arriving to this high spot, we began peering intently in the direction of a reportedly long-lived and large tornado west and north of El Reno.  It finally came into view through the darkness, humid haze and wrapping rain.  At the time I thought that it was a single tornadic circulation with two unusually stout-looking subvortices.  Instead, later mobile-radar and WSR-88D analysis … [Read more...]

7 CGs Road

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Seven cloud-to-ground flashes, of different distances and brightness in rain, electrified my world in 15–20 seconds.  This included the most vivid discharge at right, that branched several hundred feet above ground.  Meanwhile, a vehicle passed entirely across the field of view and along a nearby highway.  Profuse as this display was, it still was only a fraction of the action. 5 NE Eloy AZ (9 … [Read more...]

Dry Water Works

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This calm scene bespeaks potent natural violence.  Shortly before mostly dry Cave Creek exits its canyon in the Chiricahua Mountains, a deposited load of botanic and geologic material speaks to the power of the infrequent but intense flash floods that can surge through here.   Stones of all sizes, from pea gravel to boulders the size of small cars, roll along within the water's turbulent surge, … [Read more...]

Desert Mountain Flash

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Following a very brief but beautiful little sunset storm to the northwest, another cluster of convection developed to the north, as outflow ran up a low mountain range on the Tohono Oʼodham Indian Reservation.  This activity didn't last long either, but spit a few "striking" cloud-to-ground flashes into the higher terrain and the twilight. 7 SE Why AZ (2 Jul 21) Looking N 32.2138, -112.6322 … [Read more...]

Brock TX Tornado

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After a protracted, slow-moving spectacle of supercell structure and a couple tornadoes, the former Millsap supercell developed a new mesocyclone very close to, perhaps even somewhat over I-20, which then retreated slightly northward and deeper into the storm before producing this fuzzy, tilted, conical, sporadically multivortex tube.  Drivers were very fortunate that this supercell didn't spin … [Read more...]

Tornadic Trunk

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The Hill City tornado from 2005 is shown here with its ambient wall cloud, a couple minutes before a somewhat more-zoomed shot, using the same unknowingly and unexpectedly grainy roll of slide film.  Still, this supercell offered us a memorable afternoon of storm observing, starting with the eruption of this supercell just east of the dryline, and several miles southeast of our position at the … [Read more...]