Cumulus Mediocris

This picture was taken sometime in mid-summer 2012, and shows a healthy example of Cumulus Mediocris (I think!) well on its way to becoming an equally healthy example of Cumulus Congestus (I also think - must get better at formally identifying cloud types!).

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The towering peaks stand out nicely against the otherwise clear, blue sky, catching the late afternoon sun and casting shadows on their more distant counterparts. Although Cumulus Mediocris isn't usually a bringer of rain - or other precipitation - the dark base of these clouds brings to mind torrential downpours and frantic scrambles for shelter.

I can't recall whether they did, in fact, lead to rain, either heavy or light, but I wouldn't be at all surprised - this is England, after all!

Sunset Trees

In late summer / early autumn 2012, I caught sight of the stunning sunset pictured below. Partially hidden behind a screen of trees, the late evening sun is tinged with orange, casting a coppery glow over the gathering clouds.

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The contrast with the darkening blue sky is striking, too, pitting the sun's golden fire against the cold blue darkness of the oncoming night.

Within minutes, the sun had sunk beneath the horizon, leaving the world in shadow as night fell - and, with it, the rain from the thickening clouds.

Sunset Clouds

It's been a while since I've had chance to update this blog, but that doesn't mean I haven't been snapping the odd picture when time - and, of course, the sky - has permitted. I've finally gotten around to transferring some of them off my camera, and will post them here over the next few days.

This dramatic, and slightly angry-looking, bunch of heavy rain clouds is backlit by the setting sun. For some reason, I could imagine them as a fitting backdrop for a climactic battle in some long-drawn-out war, or other similarly portentous event.

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The picture was taken at sunset, sometime during the summer of 2012 - unfortunately, I didn't keep sufficiently good records to know exactly when. Note to self - set the date and time correctly on camera!

Cumulus Mediocris

This cloud picture shows a bubbling heap of cauliflower-shaped Cumulus Mediocris massing in the middle distance.

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Taken around lunchtime one day in early May, the clouds are framed by a gap in some nearby trees which conceal the more distant city over which they are looming. The day was one of those changeable, sunny / rainy days that never seems to stay the same for two minutes together, as the clear blue patches of sky between the clouds show.

Sunlight bathed the trees at the moment I took the picture, but just a few minutes earlier they had been bathed in a more traditionally wet manner, and would be so again when those ominous clouds arrived to blot out the sun and begin a new downpour.

PP

Cumulus Humilis at Dawn

More early morning cloud photography for today's post. Taken before 6 AM on an early May morning, this shy picture features some low-lying fluffy white clouds tinged pinky-gold by the rising sun.

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The effect a sky full of clouds like this was incredibly beautiful, their colours and shapes contrasting nicely with the deep blue of the early-morning sky. Unfortunately, I'm not entirely certain what type of clouds they are. At first I thought they were Altocumulus Floccus, but they seem to be a little to widely distributed to fit into that category, and their flattish bases and overall "flattened" appearance suggests Cumulus Humilis instead.

I could easily be wrong about that, but, either way, the clouds in this sky picture made a pretty start to the day!

PP