Stratus Magic

I was out early walking the dog one recent Saturday morning when the overnight temp had dipped into the 40s. I didn't realize I needed gloves and a hat, so I had to walk briskly to keep warm, breathing on my hands which were turning red and numb by the minute. Looks like my body was not the only one losing heat. Here, a tiny lake behind the Lacey Community Center was cloaked in steam fog (the lowest, but not lowliest of the clouds) created when the cool air meets the relatively warm water.

I stopped, fumbled with the camera to get a few shots of the drama, then marched the dog around the field behind the lake. Luckily the dog stopped every six feet to mark "his" territory, allowing me to look around. The sturdy vines of the Himalayan blackberry bushes served a major supporting role for dozens of spide webs. I imagine the fog   passed over each thread of the webs in the night, forming droplets of water that then froze into delicate ice crystals.

My New Cubicle

Thanks to the Washington State Department of Ecology and the Port of Olympia for providing me with my new deluxe office space. This site was declared a hazardous waste site in the 1980s, after decades of soil contamination by Cascade Pole Company and others in the business of loading up utlility poles and railroad ties with toxic preservatives. It has now been remediated, capped, and turned into a waterfront park(ing lot). My office comes equipped with three chairs, a writing desk, living shag carpeting, air conditioning, ample parking, views of Budd Inlet, and unlimited free clouds.

Because a roof was extra, this is my fair-weather office, where I hope to discover and observe a cloud-spawning zone--a place where the local topography, water, and winds conspire to produce relatively regular types of clouds and cloud formations. I have just learned about such a zone from Art Rangno, professor emeritus of UW's Department of Atmospheric Sciences. From the department's rooftop in Seattle years ago, Art noticed recurring clouds streets (parallel rows of clouds) created by stratocumulus and cumulus clouds rising over and upwind of Capitol Hill. He has 3,493 photographs to prove it!

From my frequent visits to Tumwater Hill Park, I have a hunch there is such a zone over the Black Hills where low stratus (?) and stratocumulus (?) seem to pour eastward over the hills from the west. It will take me some time to map this out; Mud Bay and Black Lake may be involved. So may be the exhalations of the metal cattle sculptures along Highway 101. Observing such a local pattern will require planning regular observations and being still for more than five minutes at a time. This will be a challenge for me. This is good.

Greatest Show on Earth

I had front-row seats on Sunday afternoon to a three-ring circus of a sky. Unstable does not begin to describe it. It was wild. I cannot begin to decipher what was happening but it was exhilirating to watch and simply enjoy. I took my Raleigh "Cloud Chaser" out for a spin to some great viewing spots; got pretty dizzy standing in field looking up whilst spinning and trying to take it all in. And all of it kept changing with every 360-degree spin I made. I came home just in time to avoid a deluge, then went back out for another few hours because I simply could not get enough. And then I drove west and found a parking lot and just sat there watching the action as if I were at a drive-in movie. It was....heavenly.

Sky Cocktail

Just posted this photo on the Cloud Appreciation Society website with a plea for help identifying the clouds that appeared just ahead of the rains on Wednesday night here in Olympia, WA. Just a few hours later, I got this reply:

"Maria, that is a lovely cloud mix. Here is my attempt at ID: Cumulus humilis (wider than they are tall), altocumulus at top center, and altocumulus lenticularis showing between the cumulus."

So, disregard my identifications from previous post--though I nailed altocumulus, I msised the rest. Eventually, I hope, I will be able to call out cloud types as easily as the letters of the alphabet. Maybe someone should write a catchy song naming the cloud types in altitudinal order--from A (fog) to Z (cirrus).

The Cloud Appreciation Society maintains one of my favorite websites. Don't wait for a rainy day to check it out: http://www.cloudappreciationsociety.org/