Full Frontal Drama

Full Frontal Drama in the Skies Thursday

Here's the text to explain what happend in Olympia last night (Thursday) according the National Weather Service station at the Olympia Airport in Tumwater.

"SYNOPSIS...A STRONG FRONTAL SYSTEM WILL MOVE THROUGH WESTERN

WASHINGTON THIS EVENING. RAIN ASSOCIATED WITH THE FRONT WILL SPREAD

INLAND THIS MORNING. RAIN WILL BE HEAVY AT TIMES IN THE MOUNTAINS

WITH WINDY CONDITIONS ALONG THE COAST AND OVER THE NORTHWEST

INTERIOR. THE SNOW LEVELS WILL FALL TO PASS LEVEL BY FRIDAY AND

REMAIN LOW THROUGH THE WEEKEND. UNSETTLED WEATHER WILL CONTINUE

UNTIL SUNDAY AS WEATHER SYSTEMS SPIN OUT OF THE UPPER LEVEL TROUGH

OFFSHORE. THE TROUGH WILL MOVE THROUGH WESTERN WASHINGTON ON SUNDAY.
ANOTHER WET FRONTAL SYSTEM WILL ARRIVE MONDAY. THE UNSETTLED WEATHER
WILL CONTINUE THROUGH THE MIDDLE OF NEXT WEEK."

Here's the link to these frequently updated forecast discussions. This is for 98501, but you can type in your zip code and get similiarly detailed forecasts...and even some cloud information! Olympia Weather

Friday 2 p.m.

I assumed this curtain was rain falling from the eastern edge of the cloud above.

In fact it was hail--a lot of it--falling on my neighborhood four miles away. My dog lapped up what fell on our deck. 

Floating on Webster's Clouds

 This is likely the world's smallest sky guide--a mere 1" x 5" inches. I found this simple and  very old-fashioned illustration  under "clouds" in my 1980 Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary.

  I turned to the front of the book to see if I could discover thename of the  illustrator. No credit is given to any illustrator, though the Editor in Chief notes that this edition includes 900 pictorial illustrations  "selected not simply for their decorative function but particularly for their value in clarifying definitions."

  How does Webster's define a cloud? There are six defintions for the noun and four for the verb. The first entry for the noun, the subject of my  book,  comes in two parts:  "a visible mass of particles of water or ice in the form of fog, mist, or haze suspended usu. at considerable height in the air" and "a light, filmy, puffy, or billowy mass seeming to float in the air."

  I love it. A visible mass seeming to float in the air. I got hung up on "seeming." We all talk about clouds floating by, but now someone is telling me they are not actually floating? I now have to admit I don't know what "floating" means. So I turn to that entry in my dictionary: "to rest on the surface of or be suspended in a fluid" and "to drift on or through as if on or through a liquid." Hah! So clouds do float. Or I guess I'd have to use air quotes here (how appropriate!) and say clouds "float."

  Since I'm not a fan of air quotes, I need a better verb to describe what clouds are actually doing up there: Passing by. Rolling in. Forming. Rising. Dissipating. Deteriorating. Raining. Snowing. Shadowing. Confusing.

  Back to the definition of clouds. The etymological notes tell me the noun cloud is often attributed to Middle English "rock" from Old English clud which is, oddly, akin to the Greek gloutos buttock.    

 And, in my exploration of Webster's this morning, I discovered that my treasured dictionary was  produced by a staff that included ten Clerks and Typists (3 Mildreds, 1 Maude, 1 Esther, 1 Maureen, 1 Genevive, 1 Frances, 1 Francine, and 1 Catherine) and a Head of Typing Room, named Evelyn.

    Yes, in addition to being a cloud freak, I am a word geek.

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.