Yesterday was equal to the most potent cloud day that cloud maven person has seen since moving to Catalina in 2008; from clear skies to thunder before 10 AM! Fortunately, in spite of all the incredible cloud scenes around, fine, tall clouds so early in the day, CMP was able to control himself and only take 190 photos yesterday, and will share only a 100 of the best with you.
Kind of lost interest, though, when the sky went gray in Altostratus opacus cumulonimbogenitus after about 3 PM. Didn’t get any rain here, either, which was a disappointment.
Oh, well, “Today is another day”, to paraphrase Scarlet O. And another chance for an isolated TSTM to land on us.
Saw some of the most intense rainshafts that you can see here, likely producing 1.5 to 3 inches over there on the Tort Mountains around 2 PM and thereafter yesterday. Thunder was continuous from it for awhile.
But, in poor little Catalina, not even a drop. Even though Altostratus opacus cumulonimbogenitus (copied and pasted that linguistic monstrosity to keep things moving) did not rain here, there were a few drops that got to the ground from it around James Kreig Park where CMP taking batting practice for some reason with a friend. The balls were winning.
In spite of the boring cloud scene in mid-late afternoon in Altostratus opacus cumulonimbogenitus, the skies were open far to the west and allowed a sunset display that was pretty much unequaled in CMPs experience anywhere. So, though it didn’t rain here, we got a nice light show. Hope you saw it. Go to the end to skip a lot of excess verbage and less interesting photos.
The end of the day, BTW, was ruined when a TEEVEE meteorologist came on during a local news program told his viewers that “drizzle” was falling somewhere in the area. My faced turned red, I clinched my fist, and pounded the dining room table, veins standing out. This is exactly why I don’t watch TEEVEE. Under my watch, he’d have been fired before he got off his next sentence off.
But that’s me, CMP, a person who cares deeply about educational standards. As a public service, once again I begin this blog with a photo of what’s not “drizzle”, its that important. Remember that guy (actually, a world famous prof) I told you about that asked me to leave his office and never come back right after CMP told him that it had been drizzling outside? Q. E. D. (The occurrence of drizzle meant that all of that professor’s peer-reviewed body of work in clouds was in error. OK. enough past interesting personal history… Well, maybe this; told him there was a lot more ice in his clouds than he was reporting before the drizzle comment. You could see why that prof might be “concerned.”
Drizzle, of course, is fine, CLOSE TOGETHER drops smaller than 500 microns in diameter (0.02 inches!) that almost float in the air. You can get really wet biking in drizzle, and forget about a baseball cap keeping those drops off your glasses. They can barely fall out of a cloud; you have to be real close to the base to even experience them and that’s why drizzle is commonly experienced falling from very low-based clouds along coast lines.
You can tell how much that erroneous report of “drizzle” falling in Tucson affected me in how I am starting this blog with an educational soliloquy instead of jumping into cloud photos.
By now, you’d probably like to skip to the chase, and going to the U of AZ time lapse is a good way to do that. Unfortunately, as the storm hit the campus, the power went out for a couple of hours and you miss a good part of it and end of skipping from the middle of the storm to, let’s hear it, “Altostratus opacus cumulonimbogenitus.” Its great when you can say big terms like that; it’ll make you sound more educated than you probably are!
OK, after LONG diversionary material, a sampling of yesterday’s fabulous clouds, so many will post them as thumbnails so’s I can cram in more, and, that glorious sunset, too:
7:34 AM. Cu already starting!
