Just chillin'

It was so good to be back last week for Sky Watch Friday, but I guess I was way out of practice because I totally botched my link on Mr. Linky! UGH! I couldn't figure out what was going on until I clicked on what I had done... I linked to the SWF site!!!! 2nd listing, and so few visits... sigh. Thanks to those of you who found me anyhow, and a humongous thank you to Klaus, who saved the day by fixing the link! Please visit Klaus, Sandy, Ivar, Wren, Louise and Fishing Guy's SKY WATCH BLOG to participate in Sky Watch Fridays, which is WELL WORTH YOUR WHILE!! Thanks to Dot, the mother of this fabulous blogging event, and to the "retired" Tom (appreciated the visit!), who brought it to full bloom. I, personally, love visiting the skies all over the world!!! You should definitely come fly with us! I have decided to post this morning's sky as I was leaving my neighborhood this morning, headed for work.

There are so many elements in this picture that captivate my attention... the most eye catching would be the brilliant ball of fire glaring through the haphazardly strewn icy crystal shielding of patchy cirrostratus fibratus clouds (high atmosphere clouds that are made up of ice crystals... "Relatively transparent cirrostratus fibratus clouds occur mostly in winter and often produce a halo effect around the sun or moon." ~source (cloud postage stamps!!!)), as they are scattered throughout the morning sky, adding a chilled back drop for a painfully cold morning (yes, I know I am a wimp, so?!). The next thing that catches the eye is the brilliantly illuminated contrail (condensation formed from the exhaust of a jet airplane), looking like a silver thread woven through the sky. The last thing you probably see and my actual motivation for capturing this shot is the faint sun dog (sun dogs are brilliant colored spots on a solar halo, which reflect or refract the sunlight in the ice crystals, usually when the sun is low, the two sun dogs are located on the circle of the 22° halo) that you see just above the tree line. When I first decided I wanted to capture a shot of the sun dog here, it was a brilliant spectrum of color in the patchy cirrus clouds. In the moments it took me to get my camera ready, it had dulled significantly but remained with me during my entire drive to work. After viewing the shot, though, I absolutely love the way the cirrus clouds sort of haze and distort the sun. Awesomeness!!!

Anyways, with all that said, the main story today in the US, remains the Arctic blast of cold air sweeping across the nation, which was pushed in by the parade of Alberta clippers, bringing in the coldest temperatures some of these areas have seen in over 10 years, some more years than that! High temperatures capping out in the NEGATIVES! Then, you pile on the wind and you get wind chills nearing -50°F in some places!!! School and business closures have helped protect folks from the very real danger of going out into such weather. Several deaths have already been attributed to the harsh cold, and many warm shelters have opened up to give folks a place to go to be safe from the deathly cold temperatures. A new threat develops with a deep freeze such as this... the ground freezes to about 5 and 6 feet deep, which puts underground pipes in danger of rupture, so people are without water. This is an amazing cold weather outbreak. It's so intense, that 20 of the 50 states are under wind chill advisories. Many of the northern states are forecast to have s#@w; some are expected to get about 1 1/16" of s#@w, which should not be confused with the 13" of s#@w that other areas are dealing with. My neck of the woods is still expected to remain s#@wless... WHEW!

I know it seems less impressive to talk about south Georgia and parts of Florida, which are just dipping into freezing temps (we actually are under a hard freeze warning), but our part of the country is about as equipped to deal with extreme cold as the far north is prepared for extremely high temperatures. This morning, our thermometers dove below 32°F, but we have yet to see the worst of it. We are heading into the TEENS, in the wind chill forecast for the early morning and as an actual forecasted low of 18°F for Friday night! UGH! Can you say: DEWDROPCICLE!!!?

All of you United States based Sky watchers need to bundle up, stay indoors, dress in MANY layers if you MUST go out, and enjoy the warmth of your sky watching via SWF... here's a little ray of sunshine to help warm you up...Warm blessings,
~Dewdrop