SkyPix

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

Rotation, Rotation, Rotation

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Representing spin at many scales, this west-central Texas scene contains a striking, broadly rotating supercell, with classically striated cloud skirt and deep updraft towers tilted to the upper right.  Below that, a wall cloud rapidly spun, and its conical tornado, much faster still.  Meanwhile, wind turbines whirled uninhibited in the inflow region of this storm, which passed just a few miles to … [Read more...]

Orange Turbulence

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Outflow layered upon outflow as a newer, elevated storm (with core at left) developed over the cold pool left behind a messy supercell, whose flanking base can be see above the horizon.  For just a minute or two, as the last of the sun's daily rays streamed through an unseen western cloud break, the turbulent cloud base of the nearer storm caught the light and used it to texture the eastern sky … [Read more...]

Spiked Glacier

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You could say this tidal glacier "spiked the drink" whenever it calved into the bay.  Sharp prongs of ice, tens of feet high, told tales of buckling, shearing and erosion as the mass descended from the high Fairweather Range of coastal southeastern Alaska. 76 NW Hoonah AK (31 Jul 3) Looking S 59.0453, -137.054 … [Read more...]

Tornado Spotting the Old Mesocyclone

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This view offers a classic storm-spotting lesson.  Paying close attention to radar and NWS warnings upshear, and being in a tornado watch, the diligent spotter knows a supercell is approaching from the west, has prepared for this, and immediately springs into duty.  Upon emerging from the low, wooded area of Hill Country to the north and west to occupy a good, high vantage, the spotter  sees the … [Read more...]

Big Bolts by Brookville

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While photographing more-distant lightning (see the bolt at left rear?) a bright flash blasted through the sky beneath a base higher than the field of view, around two miles away.  This was unambiguous evidence that it was time to toss the tripodded camera into the back and evacuate the area, fast.  Unlike a similarly close discharge a couple weeks before in Norman, I wasn't  within any sort of … [Read more...]

Blum Trunk

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Dangerous and delicate at the same time, a tornado depends on a narrow but still incompletely understood balance of storm-scale conditions to form and persist.  This one spun near Blum, TX, for almost 10 minutes within a deeply occluded mesocyclone, evolving from a rain-wrapped bowl shape to a lumpy elephant-trunk formation here—and later, a tapering, pointed tube that destroyed a wedding venue.  … [Read more...]