SkyPix

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

Skeletons of the Frye Fire

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Lightning ignited the 2017 Frye fire, which burned a lot of acreage in the Pinaleno Mountains, nearly up to the observatory telescopes on Mt. Graham.  Conifer forests, overrun in intense crown-fire bursts, stand today only as skeletal trunks and branches.  Fitting it was, then, that on my visit here, a dying mountain thunderstorm with breaks of blue sky textured the scene overhead.  On this wet … [Read more...]

Young Storm in the Pinalenos

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I drove this lonely road—not the only one that I've ever known—leading to a young cumulonimbus rising off the southern part of the Mt. Graham massif, in eastern Arizona's Pinaleno Mountains.  When a storm blows up and poses like this, practically begging for photography, why not accommodate?  This was a rewarding storm-observing and shooting day, being able to experience this midday activity and … [Read more...]

Desert Shelf

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Starting high in the mountains above Silver City, a collection of multicell storms rushed out onto the deserts north of I-10 and aggregated their outflows, while new cells developed atop that.  The resulting cold pool kept generating new thunderstorms as it swept southward and southwestward over the desert floor south of I-10 and toward the Mexican border from Lordsburg, occasionally raising dust, … [Read more...]

Tandem Thunderers

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Dancing along the edge of a heavy-rain core, two cloud-to-ground flashes pop the desert terrain between Phoenix and Tucson.  I photographed dozens of CGs during this fun and productive late-evening shoot, all from one spot!  I almost missed this, and would have hated myself if I had.  I nearly had decided to go to my motel room, tired after a day in the Catalina Mountains.  Instead I mustered the … [Read more...]

First Warm-Frontal Tornado

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Having been initially out of position for earlier supercells forming near an outflow-reinforced warm front and producing a brief tornado or two each, we zipped north from the Channing area to see if newer and nearer towers, visible to our north, could grow into a storm and achieve the same feat.  They most certainly did, and then some.  The resulting supercell became the longest-lived "anchor … [Read more...]

Lightning and Classic Cars

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A pair of old Mercury sedans rested on the desert floor as a thunderstorm receded away.  Out there in a dry climate, sun-beaten almost daily, these cars will deteriorate, but at a much-slower rate than areas that get more rain, hail and snow. Benson AZ (12 Jul 21) Looking WSW 31.9816, -110.3082 … [Read more...]