FTLComm - Tisdale - May 7, 2000

Throughout Saturday there was a gradual build up toward late afternoon showers and the first came just after supper. It lasted only a few minutes so we decided to go for a walk. The pictures on this page are shown in sequence as the scene that greeted us as we left the house was that above and looking South at that time revealed this interesting reflection of the late day sun on the pitching sky. The image below shows the glare of the sun on the wet pavement and the high contrast of the silouhetted trees. This picture shows the approaching shower yet we missed the signs and waltzed along. Our very own crow refused to make any announcements when I asked her about the sky. She just ruffled her wet feathers and pretended not to hear me.

The gentle cumulous spring clouds presented a high contrast to the shaft of sunlight and the remnants of the shower can be seen in the fragmented vapourous clouds well below the bumpy ceiling. Moments later we were getting drenched as we hustled along to Wick's Gas bar for shelter. It was then that Judy pointed out that she should have brought her umbrella and I offered to go back and get it for her. The rain wasn't heavy, just enough to get our heads wet and soak our jackets but we survived. When we emmerged from Wicks and headed home below is what the sky looked like to the North.

The steady upper winds and the uplifting warmer air produced a conflict, an argument of sorts between the rising warm air and the cooling descending wet air filled with water droplets. The conflict of rising and descending air in moderate temperatures creates this curious combination of rounded structures that we can see from the ground. In the summer with the temperature extremes much higher this event takes place with much greater speed and the bumps

are much less pronounced as the wind shear speeds are higher. In addition, summer cloud formations of this type are far more dense and their darkness prevents us from seeing these convolutions and conflicts. To me it is a battle in the sky, a skywar as the warm air and cold air tangle with one another exchanging heat and transforming moisture to water vapour, to rain drops, to ice crystals. But unlike summer conflicts this one takes place with out the noise of electrical discharge and sonic booms from instantanously super heated air sending out shock waves that travel from horizon to horizon. (Thunder and lightning) The picture below is a QuickTime VR panorama and show the sky over a 180 degree arc from Northwest to Southeast.

By the time we reached our door step the cloud formation that had rained on us and put on such a show was not moving to the East and could be seen from a distance. The picture below is a composite image made from four pictures to give you the wide view of the scene. This picture was actually fourteen inches across.