Cirrocumulus display

First, it behooves me1 to point out that there remains a considerable amount of uncertainty in the weather WAY ahead.  This is demonstrated below by the map from the NOAA spaghetti factory from last evening, one that  churned out a LOT of “spaghetti”, perhaps making the point about how chaotic weather is:

Valid at 5 PM, March 26th. Doesn't matter where Arizona is.
Valid at 5 PM, March 26th, two weeks from now. Doesn’t matter where Arizona is;  although, although… when I look really close….I think I can see some rain for us.  The lines are selected contours of the height of the 500 mb surface, after slight errors have been introduced to the initial state of the forecast model.   The actual forecast of those contours is in their somewhere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday’s Cirrocu

Late yesterday, a thin moist layer moved in and produced, where the air was lifted that bit more, a little patch of Cirrocumulus, our most delicate cloud.

5:09 PM. Cirrocumulus. No ice apparent.
5:09 PM. Cirrocumulus. No ice apparent, something that would blur the spaces between the tiny cloudlets.  Height was about 17 kft above the ground, temperature, -15 C.  So delicate!

 

6:28 PM. Line of Altocumulus enhances sunset. Too thick, elements too large to be Cirrocu, though they were both at the same height yesterday.
6:28 PM. Line of Altocumulus enhances sunset. Too thick, elements too large to be Cirrocu, though they were both at the same height yesterday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think that covers just about everything.

The End.

——————-
1What an odd expression, to “behoove oneself” in effect, as in becoming a perissodactyla, while doing something you feel you must do as a responsible person.  Imagine, before issuing a responsible statement, that it was normal for people to put on hooves, or to wear them when coming out to a news conference to announce something responsible, correct the record, etc.  Perhaps, if it wasn’t that bad, you would wear only one hoof…

By Art Rangno

Retiree from a group specializing in airborne measurements of clouds and aerosols at the University of Washington (Cloud and Aerosol Research Group). The projects in which I participated were in many countries; from the Arctic to Brazil, from the Marshall Islands to South Africa.