An upper level disturbance is going to pass over us today (see map with bend in the winds at 30,000 feet coming toward us here), but the only thing we’ll notice is some nice Altocumulus clouds floating over followed by a clearing later on today. Those clouds are overhead now in the pre-dawn hours, we’ll… Continue reading Altocumulus overhead; sunrise photo op coming
Category: Altocumulus clouds
Some iridescence with your clouds? And a photo comparison of our current droughty conditions compared to last April’s green
Yes, we had some yesterday evening in those Altocumulus lenticularis clouds or just “clouds” for most of you. This delicate “rainbow” coloring in last evening’s clouds is due to the diffraction of light around really small cloud droplets, ones that have just formed, a few microns to 1o microns or so in diameter. Because the… Continue reading Some iridescence with your clouds? And a photo comparison of our current droughty conditions compared to last April’s green
Bloggin’ cold, maybe snow here in Catalina
But first, “storm” 3 of six as foretold many days ago by our wonderful numerical models having “billions and billions and billions” of calculations (to use a numeric phrase made popular by the late Carl Sagan) is going to pass over today. Hoping for a sprinkle late in the day, but virga seems likely in… Continue reading Bloggin’ cold, maybe snow here in Catalina
“Little snowstorms in the sky, I think I’d like to have some pie”
You’re probably smiling now remember singing this little ditty as a kid, maybe singing it with your friends on the bus, whenever you saw “Altocumulus floccus virgae” clouds such as are pictured in the first photo. Wasn’t it great when you saw these kinds of clouds while on a vacation trip and mom and… Continue reading “Little snowstorms in the sky, I think I’d like to have some pie”
0.07 inches
It was beginning to seem like measurable rain could not fall again here! But then those Stratocumulus clouds because closing in in the afternoon, then soon after that some snow virga began to trail down from them here and there, and the next thing, large regions of the sky were suddenly shedding virga and rain… Continue reading 0.07 inches
More about holes-in-clouds while we’re waiting for the AZ rain in a few days
There have been a coupla comments on that aircraft effect in clouds blog of a coupla weeks ago and so I thought I would follow up with this sequence from the Atmos Sci Building rooftop at the University of Washington where I spent most of my time instead of at my desk.1 Here is a… Continue reading More about holes-in-clouds while we’re waiting for the AZ rain in a few days
What’s Up with This?
Got pretty mad yesterday when I saw this overhead in some Altocumulus perlucidus clouds. You’ll have to hold your monitor or Ipad, or cell phone, or whatever, over your head to see it EXACTLY the way I saw this because it WAS overhead; straight up. (Actually, doing 3 sets of 12 might be good for… Continue reading What’s Up with This?
Arizona: Colorado temperatures, Colorado clouds
It was a mind-boggling, hiking-challenging -30 F at Grand Canyon AP yesterday morning. Overhead of Flagstaff, at 5 AM MST yesterday it was -38 C (-36 F) and that temperature was the lowest temperature at 500 millibars in all of the US. It is really, really rare to see -38 C over Arizona! … Continue reading Arizona: Colorado temperatures, Colorado clouds
Colorful announcement of a storm
This glorious sunrise today about 7:30 AM announces in its way that a strong storm is on the way. Why? First of all the clouds, “altocumulus lenticularis” are the lower, rippled clouds, combined with a higher, solid layer of altocumulus and altostratus clouds demonstrates that the air is moist to saturated over a great depth… Continue reading Colorful announcement of a storm