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!

Suburban Sunrise

This sunrise picture was taken early in May from the corner of a suburban street that clings to the side of a steep valley. The corner lies at the top of the hill, and the street drops away sharply as it descends into the valley - hence, each successive house in the foreground appears to be lower than the one before it.

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This arrangement left a clear view across the valley, obstructed only by the dark outlines of overhead telephone cables, to where the very early morning sun was making its first appearance above the distant hills as it burned a brilliant golden hole through the clouds.

The pale blue sky contrasted nicely with the pinks and golds of the clouds, creating a sense of calm that offset the dramatic brilliance of the sunrise and the sharp outlines of the sleeping dwellings in the foreground.

For all I'm not fond of early mornings, I'm coming around to the idea that sunrise photos have a dramatic potential that is not often matched at other times of day. Shame it has to happen so early!

PP

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

Altocumulus Lenticularis

Taken towards the end of  warm and sunny mid-April afternoon, this cloud picture shows and interesting batch of elongated, smooth-looking clouds which I tentatively believe to be Altocumulus Lenticularis, although, as always, I could be wrong about that.

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Nestling amongst the ever-present contrails, and lit by the late afternoon sun, these striking clouds caught my attention as I popped into my local supermarket. I don't recall ever having spotted any lenticular clouds before, certainly not in such a prominent position, and I couldn't resist capturing them for posterity before grabbing my groceries.

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

Contrail Collection

A warm, sunny afternoon in late April, a clear blue sky, and a whole bunch of contrails. As I've said before, it's sometimes difficult to grasp just how much air traffic passes over a major city in even a short space of time, but, on a calm, clear day, the evidence speaks for itself.

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This picture of contrails covers just a small portion of the sky and a short period of time, and yet a significant proportion of the sky is obscured by fuzzy white trials. It's long been suggested that abundant contrails may, cumulatively, be sufficient to have an adverse effect on surface temperatures, as the article "Clouds Caused By Aircraft Exhaust May Warm The U.S. Climate" (Science Daily, April 28, 2004) points out.

I'm not qualified to know whether there's any truth in such theories, but it's difficult to ignore the sheer number of contrails drifting overhead, day and night!

PP