Blended colours

Someone took an airbrush to the sky over the horizon at moonrise.

Bright and beautiful

Click on the image to enlarge it

If you ever bother to look at this blog you'll have noticed that it's been neglected for months. This is mainly because I've hardly been outside for months. I intend to get out more. On the few occasions that I have been out recently, I've missed a couple of photo-opportunities. Sitting in my garden the other day, in conversation with a neighbour over tea, I spotted some cirrocumulus lacunosus overhead. I could have excused myself and rushed in to get my camera, but as my guest was in the middle of telling me something quite personal, it seemed rude to interrupt her, so I didn't. By the time she'd finished her story, the cloud had dispersed. Then, while being driven home by taxi along a busy main road the other day, I spotted some wonderful cumulus heaps. I tried to capture them with my phone but it was impossible, traveling at speed and with road signs and other features in the way, so you'll just have to take my word for it that they were magnificent!

Yesterday I went to the far side of the village to capture some of the abundant cumulus clouds that filled the sky. I tried using my small Fujifilm pocket camera's panorama feature but it was almost impossible to see the instructions onscreen in bright sunlight, especially as my sight's not so hot these days, so the result was due to luck, not judgement. The other shots were more straightforward, with no joins.

Brightness

Some billowy cumulus clouds below a thin layer of cirrostratus this morning, creating a hazy effect. This was taken through a window, as you can see.

The day started with cirrostratus and the moon still high,. Later, cumulus came and went. During the afternoon there were lots of cirrus clouds, some in extraordinary shapes, like the squiggle that drifted slowly north east, stretching as it went.

At about 9 this morning, there was a sheet of cirrostratus (ice at high altitude) stretching over the house. It had disappeared less than an hour later.

At a high altitude, wavy sheets of cirrostratus. Lower down, cumulus humilis.

Hazy morning

Not much blue sky to be seen this morning, though the sun was shining, because of a layer of cirrostratus. It cleared later.

Hot June Day

Very hot day. A layer of cirrostratus, and below it some cirrus and altocumulus.

Cumulus congestus

Bright sunny day - very warm for a while.

Cirrostratus

Variety

A bright sunny day with an assortment of clouds.

Low level cumulus and high level cirrostratus.

More low level cumulus and higher wisps of what looks like altocumulus.

Low level cumulus, some altocumulus, and a milky veil of cirrostratus.

Thin streaks of high altocumulus radiatus, tinted peachey-pink by a setting sun.

Barely visible

Mostly blue skies over the last few days.

Frosted blue

Clear blue sky earlier, then a layer of cirrostratus covered the sky.

Milky sky

A veil of cirrostratus.

Cirrostratus & cirrocumulus

Cold sky

It was chilly at ground level, but between 16,500 and 45,000 feet it was even chillier. In the morning a few isolated patches of cirrus floated about, but this is a larger area formed of two types of cirrus: at the top of the picture, streaky cirrostratus, a milky veil at about 30,000 feet; at the bottom of the picture, the bobbly appearance of cirrocumulus, which is higher.

At sunset, there was a layer of altocumulus overhead, larger bobbles than the cirrocumulus, at a lower altitude.






















Lower still, a few cumulus caught the colours of the sunset as they faded away.