August 21, 22, and 25, 2014

The sky has been so interesting these past few days, but I have been too busy to stop and upload the pictures to here. Also, the sky changes so quickly, it's hard not to take and post a million pictures for each day. Clouds make the sky so much more interesting...

August 21, 2014
This day was really hot and muggy - one of the worst in recent memory. Air conditioning didn't seem to do much. 80+% humidity will do that, I suppose. Anyway, it was a good day for crepuscular rays through Cumulus fractus clouds.

Near the evening, it looked like the remnant of a rare Kelvin-Helmholtz. This cloud is faint, but if you look closely, the top edge of the cloud looks like the teeth of a circular saw blade.

August 22, 2014

The next day was supposed to be a bit cooler, but it was still hot and sticky. It felt like endless summer. The sky was so blue and beautiful with its sprawling field of cumulus clouds and wispy, high-flying cirrus clouds.

August 25, 2014

Over the weekend, we had thunderstorms and rain. The result was that Sunday was warm, with a cool, dry breeze. Today's breeze was even a bit chilly at times. It was a wonderful relief after the hot, stuffy week we'd had, but by the afternoon, clouds had moved in. In the picture you below, you can see rainfall in the distant West from some stratocumulus clouds.

To the Northwest, the sky was still mostly clear, except for some cirrostratus clouds.

 Here, some faint mammatus formation above the stratocumulus clouds.

And to close out this entry, a nice shot of an altocumuls undulatus cloud to the Northwest about an hour after these other pictures were taken. I liked it because it looked like a cooked fillet of cod. Okay, so maybe I was just hungry at that point...

August 20, 2014

This morning I woke up to a wet world and gray skies, but on my way to school, I saw a bit of blue sky. I like the way this one looks kind of like the Ocean Spray logo.

And I got to see some faint crepuscular rays: 

if you build it, they will come

We had mild thunderstorms roll through the area until mid-afternoon. To hear the low rumble of thunder every once in a while was nice. Thunderstorms, even mild ones, always thrill me for some reason. 

August 16, 2014

Today and yesterday have been hot and muggy.

Yesterday, August 15th, was in the 70s with over 80% humidity.
The sky to the West was interesting:

The glowing spot is the sun. Even though there were lots of clouds, I knew it wouldn't rain - not based on science, but a feeling; just a feeling. Looks like we had a few different kinds of clouds yesterday; Altocumulus in the middle-left side merging into some Altostratus (the ones covering the sun) and then lower in the frame Stratocumulus (the dark gray line of clouds) and are those some Pannus clouds at the very bottom? I can't be sure. Anyone care to weigh in?

The sky to the East was almost clear. I didn't take a picture of it, sadly, so you can't see the contrast. Wind was from the Northeast.

Today, I did a better job of taking pictures of the entire sky. It was hotter (mid-80s and 70% humidity), but not quite as muggy until the evening. Now it is actually very dark outside and it's raining. The following pictures were taken just 20 minutes earlier:

 

I think what this might be is a Cumulonimbus cloud, because there is a clear edge to the rain cloud, also radar suggests that it is a singular spot. Otherwise, I might think it was a Nimbostratus, but those tend to take over an entire sky.

June 16, 2014

The day started out hot, humid and sunny. But soon enough, another storm system was starting to make its way through the area.

Some Mammatus clouds:

Mid-day, we got some blue sky with a few scattered Altocumulus and Cirrus clouds.

Late afternoon, the wind picked up, some pea-sized hail mixed with rain and now, a dark severe thunderstorm is moving north to the east of us. Nothing good comes from dark clouds like that. There's a constant low rumble and the breeze is cool and humid. I'm sure we are under a Cumulonimbus.

June 15, 2014

Last night we got over 3 inches of rain, but thankfully there weren't any tornadoes or flooding in my town. Today's sky was beautiful and the breeze cool. A perfect kind of summer day - hot in the sun, but cool in the shade.

Altocumulus clouds mixed with higher-flying cirrus.

A field of Altocumulus with the turreted tops of castellanus.

May 31, 2014

We had two mild thunderstorms roll through this evening one after another. I didn't get pictures of the first one coming in, but here are pictures of the second one coming in. I love that you can see the front line.

This type of cloud is called an arcus (this one is weak - which makes sense as the storm was rather mild on this end) and is associated with fast-moving storms.

After the second storm, we were treated to a double rainbow. Only the main rainbow was a full rainbow (went all the way to the other side, but my camera lens couldn't fit it all in), though. Still, it was beautiful and bright - and the best part of all this rain? I don't have to water the grass or garden! Hurrah!