SkyPix

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

Internal Illumination

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An electrically prolific little storm complex in the blue hour kept producing photogenic lightning, this time two closely spaced CGs essentially at once.  That was accompanied by a lot of internally illuminating lightning to reveal the convective structure in mid/upper levels.  What a fun event this was to behold, as it raced away to the southeast. 4 W Sharon Springs KS (4 Jun 22) Looking … [Read more...]

Stout Tornado in the Oil Fields

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Here, the "Midland" tornado reached its best-organized stage, as a thick, tapered stovepipe, meandering slowly and erratically through the Permian Basin drilling region south of town.  An EF3 rating was earned based on some damage in the oil fields, at about this time.  Tornadoes that wreck actively used oil-field equipment or storage facilities can create spills and a hazardous materials (HAZMAT) … [Read more...]

Sun through Storm: Badlands

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For a short time before the arrival of 2024's edition of my "Badlands Storm", the sun was visible through the anvil.  This was possible because the arcus cloud outran the core by several miles, out under parts of the downshear anvil that were thin enough to allow direct visibility of the sun.  It's hard to beat the starkly beautiful Badlands (of either Dakota!) for storm observing on the High … [Read more...]

Rapids Gone Mad

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One could say this little waterfall amidst a set of rapids (known as Warren Falls) was mad about being photographed, about flowing, about pretty much anything else.  That's because this was along the Mad River in Vermont, in the Green Mountains physiographic province.  One also could say, with much more truth, that the Mad River was calming, soothing and comforting on this fine, mild autumn … [Read more...]

Long Thin Heat

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This vastly reaching, branching flash over west Texas—a few inches thick and many miles long—very briefly but instantly heated the air in its entire channel to a roughly 50,000-degree (F) plasma.  That explosive condition created the loud, bumpy, rumbling and rolling sound wave we know as thunder.  Imagine sticks of dynamite daisy-chained together in a wiggly pattern for miles, but set off all at … [Read more...]

Midlevel Sunset Tower

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Viewed from high atop the National Weather Center, the sunset in the west was pretty, as they often are in these parts.  One easily could have gotten fixated on that, and missed this even more brilliant and peculiar formation lighting up the eastern sky!  A ragged midlevel convective tower (altocumulus castellanus) still had enough strength to force some lift through stable layers near its base, … [Read more...]