Hihg clouds begin to move toward Catalina! Storm of bullet rosettes ahead!

Misspelling the word, “high” was inadvertent; but leaving it was deliberate, thinking it might work as another cheap attempt to get more than one reader1, presently my mom.   Hi, mom.  Glad you enjoyed your mom’s day dinner yesterday, followed by the exciting trip through the Catalina car wash.  Really squirts, doesn’t it?

Continuing….people might wonder if “hihg” a new word or acronym they haven’t seen before, maybe wonder if it describes something they should know about.   So, I am looking to capture one or two extra folks today.

Our next “storm” will occur mostly above 20 kft above Catalina in the form of light snow showers of single ice crystals from Cirrus clouds, typically those crystals that fall out of Cirrus clouds are bullet rosettes.

What’s a bullet rosette?  See below:

University of Washington flight engineer, Don Spurgeon monitors the Stratton Park Engineering Company's images of "bullet rosettes" in flight.
University of Washington flight engineer, Don Spurgeon.  monitors the Stratton Park Engineering Company’s images of “bullet rosettes” in flight.  Chad Slattery, Smithsonian mag free lance writer, took the shot.  Sadly, Don and the other crew members did not get into the Smithsonian article, only Pete Hobbs and me.  Pretty sad for them but happy for me! Yes, I was on this flight!  Except it wasn’t a flight, we were sitting on the ground at Paine Field, Everett, WA, where our plane was kept, and Don brought up that image so that Chad could take what would appear to be an “action. in-flight” shot in his article.

 

Oh, there could be an Altocumulus cloud, too, by tomorrow.  But that’s about it.  Our last storm was not actually a storm, btw, though there were some low clouds.   I guess it got pretty windy, but not rain fell here, nor did it snow whatsoever atop Ms. Lemmon, though it was cold enough to.  Boohoo.

But, the overall trend for upper cyclonic systems to nest over the Great Southwest continues, insuring a mild May here in Catalinaland, and also a ton of precip in other parts of the SW, with only brief interruptions of hot air, like the kind that comes from this weather keyboard.

The pretty, and high Cirrus clouds should begin arriving this afternoon, except that some are already arriving (5:20 AM)!  Cloud maven seems to be on a wrong streak!

Next Catalina rain chance, graciously presented by the Canadians, is overnight, May 14-15th, just a few days from now.  Check it out.  This graphic been arrowated and texted for your convenience and understanding.

Valid at 5 AM AST, May 15th.  Lower right panel shows where The Model thinks that rain has fallen during the prior 12 h, and it includes Catalina!
Valid at 5 AM AST, May 15th from the Enviro Can GEM model.   Lower right panel shows where The Model thinks that rain has fallen during the prior 12 h, and it includes Catalina!

 

The End

 

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1Still can’t get over that Atlantic article about, “Blogging for dollars”; its like a song hook, maybe like the one from,   The Model,  by the very Germanic Kraftwerk techno-pop group, and yet after two years, I have made nothing!  With millions of readers, you can make a LOT of money, get some great advertising like the various stuff that precedes the viewing of The Model, which has already accumulated more than 4 million views!

So I continue to reach out for readers and money.

What would a neurotic-compulsive, self-described “cloud maven” do with “a LOT of money”?

Underground power lines in his neighborhood.  They obstruct sky and cloud views.  Used to be quite a movement around the US to do that, but not so much anymore.

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.

3 comments

  1. Art–
    I had to laugh at the attention-getting misspelling in your latest blog! Seems like a micro version of the “stoic Holstein” sculpture and the “road rage” cirrostratus cloud caption of yore.
    Well, you got my attention.
    Why don’t you figure out how to let readers subscribe to your blog so it arrives in their inboxes via RSS feed. This way, your mom and I don’t have to “work” at remembering to check your blog.
    I am sending you some questions via e-mail on thermals. Maybe a topic for your next blog? Cheers!

    1. Interesting comment and suggestion, Maria, now that I have just discovered I had a bunch of comments in waiting. RSS? Hmmmm. I will see about setting that up.

      a

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