Drawing in the sky

It was so funny this morning to walk out of my garage and see this in the sky, right before my eyes. Mini-Dew said, "X marks the spot." Indeed, the spot where my Sky Watch Friday shot would be taken. The contrails formed a clear "X" in the sky just north of my house this morning. It was very cool. Plus... in a bed of wafty cirrus clouds, even cooler. It looks like God took chalk to the sky.... In order to participate in Sky Watch Friday, please visit Tom's blog for details.

Contrails or vapour trails are condensation trails and artificial cirrus clouds made by the exhaust of aircraft engines or wingtip vortices which precipitate a stream of tiny ice crystals in moist, frigid upper air. Being composed of water, the visible white streams are not air pollution. ~Wikipedia

That being said, it might still interest you to know in which atmospheric conditions contrails will be generated... glad you asked... lol

What is key to the formation of contrails is atmospheric conditions. Contrail formation is dependent upon the temperature, relative humidity, and pressure at which the vehicle is flying as well as the ratio of moisture to heat produced by the vehicle's engine. In particular, the ambient air must be at low temperature and low vapor pressure. Vapor pressure is the pressure of water vapor within the atmosphere.

The ambient air mixes with the hot, humid exhaust because of turbulence generated by the exhaust flow. If that mixture happens to be saturated or supersaturated with moisture, a contrail will form. Answer by Jeff Scott.

Onto the weather... the SPC was accurate yesterday in forecasting a severe weather event; golf ball and baseball-sized hail fell yesterday in the plains. Today, that storm has mostly lined out to a squall event, and the severe weather is expected to occur in southern Louisiana and Mississippi. Aside from that, there was an earthquake yesterday in Illinois that registered a magnitude of 5.4 on the Richter Scale. Finally, we have Typhoon Neoguri, still a Typoon Category 2 with 100mph winds. Having lost some intensity overnight, it appears to be building back up just in time for a powerful landfall well east of the initial trajectory, now headed straight for Hong Kong, where a dear friend of mine lives.

I have some very sad news to share today. A dear friend of mine's brother was diagnosed with bone cancer one week ago Wednesday, when his pre-op for back surgery revealed spots on X-ray. The back surgery was to treat back pain which was most likely associated with the cancer, unbeknownst to anyone. The day before yesterday, one week after diagnosis, her brother passed away, after a painful battle. For many years, I have worked as a volunteer for the American Cancer Society raising funds during our annual Relay for Life event. For the past 3 years, I have served as the area accounting chair for the event. Stories such as this break my heart. Cancer is still destroying lives. There is still so much more research that needs to be done to eradicate this demonic killer. I have included a link for you to help support me in this vicious battle. Thanks for your support.

Enjoy your weekend!
~Dewdrop