Ahh, the lovely skies

SKY WATCH FRIDAY time! Though Obama-madness has died down some in my neck of the woods, I am still pretty swamped with stimulus yuck, so I might not get a chance to say hi. Please don't take offense. Thanks for the visit anyhow. Our hosts: Klaus Sandy Ivar Wren Louise Fishing Guy

Thanks, also,to Dot and Tom, who were instrumental in the success of this blogging event. You should definitely come fly with us!

I have spoken about crepuscular rays often. They are what look like rays of light peaking through breaks in the clouds, which are actually light bouncing off dirty particles in the air. Well, what happens when the cloud actually obstructs the light...? Well, you get cloud shadows, and I have talked about those before, but I have never captured as nice of an example as I did yesterday.

Yesterday, I noted that the Storm Prediction Center had issued a mesoscale discussion regarding a likelihood of severe weather in my neck of the woods... they outlined an area that could expect damaging wind and hail. The area that was expecting to get some action is identified here to the right. Notice the storm reports from yesterday... notice any here??? ... or anywhere in the mesoscale discussion area, for that matter????No, I think not! We did have some beautiful clouds, really amazing towers, as the instability revealed itself, but check out the ridiculous radar for yesterday, which shows a clear depiction of the weatherless void that exists around me (the less than fondly dubbed, Dewvoid). Locally, all I saw was a little lightning, nothing happened here... judging by the lightning show, it looked like it all happened north of here, in Meso Mike's neck of the woods. Incidentally, his mom told me she thought it was active down our way. The buck tends to stop at her son... sigh. Here are some amazing sky shots from yesterday though.



It really was spectacular with the striking blue contrasting with the brilliant white climbing desperately to its highest height. I wonder if any of them produced hail. Cumulonimbus clouds are exciting and exotically beautiful to me. That last one would be considered a Cumulonimbus capillatus, which is a cumulonimbus cloud with cirrus-like, fibrous-edged top. Oh, I didn't even mention the hail/rain shaft that I captured. Looks like it could have been hail, but I'm not too sure.

You remember me talking yesterday about the Tropical Depression 2, which prematurely was being called Ana... well, that is typically the kiss of death to a tropical system. I think it's Ma Nature's way of saying... "So, you think you know me, do you? Well, I'll show you..." Check out the image to the upper left... under the Lx, do you see anything...? I think not. The circulation has lost an essential characteristic of tropical cyclone-ness... convection. All the moisture has been dried out of the low pressure system, which will most likely suffocate the system causing it to vanish into nothingness... however, they are still thinking TD2 will become Tropical Storm Ana before eventually dissipating. The next area of concern would be that juicy area off the coast of Africa. The models are still carrying it all the way to the US in about 10 days, as a tropical cyclone. Will it be Ana? Will it be Bill? Who knows??? Stay tuned.

Have a fantabulous day!
~Dewdrop