Strange Skies
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Cloud Grey

Awesome time-lapse video of Undulatus Asperatus clouds in North Dakota

Mike Olbinski
YouTube
Sat, 03 Jun 2017 05:00 UTC
Undulatus asperatus clouds North Dakota
© YouTube/Mike Olbinski (screen capture)
All spring I chase storms across the United States to collect footage of supercells, lightning, tornadoes and whatever I might find. Generally I don't release any time-lapse clips from those chases until I put out my final end of season compilation film. But last night in North Dakota was too unreal to let sit on my hard drive for months.

We were chasing northeast of Bismarck, North Dakota and as storms were dying out, we decided to go for a lone cell on the backside of a line of storms. We knew it had a hail core on it and we were hoping that we might get some nice sunset color at least on the storm as it moved past us, and hopefully some lightning bolts. But we had no idea what we were about to encounter. The clouds were taking on a very different, curvy, wave-like appearance and suddenly we knew what we were seeing.

Undulatus asperatus clouds are a rare phenomenon and actually the newest named cloud type in over 60 years. I've seen tons of photos of them, but never anything like what we witnessed last night. We had a storm with hail in front of us and flashing lightning which was fantastic. But then we had this layer of undulatus clouds flowing across our view.


Comment: Further evidence of our changing atmosphere? See also:

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Sun

Large halo seen around the sun in different locations around Singapore

Patricia Goy
Straits Times
Sat, 03 Jun 2017 05:00 UTC
Sun halo in Singapore
© Shermaine LerThe sun halo as seen from Toa Payoh Lorong 1 at around 12.30pm.
A large halo around the sun was seen from various locations in Singapore yesterday afternoon.

Photos of it posted online were taken in places such as Changi, Marina Bay and Toa Payoh.

The optical phenomenon, which is not uncommon, typically occurs when there are thin clouds so high in the sky that they are made of ice crystals rather than water droplets.

The crystals act as tiny prisms, reflecting and refracting light in such a way that a ring is seen around the sun. Such a halo is referred to as a sun halo, solar halo or 22-degree halo, where 22 degrees is the angle formed between one's eye and the edge and centre of the halo.

A reader once asked if it was possible to forecast when something like this would happen.
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Comet

Maori gods and silk comets, auroras light up the night skies

Adapt 2030
You Tube
Wed, 31 May 2017 19:27 UTC
Six major Máori departmental gods represented by wooden godsticks: left to right, Tūmatauenga, Tāwhirimātea, Tāne, Tangaroa, Rongo, and Haumia
Six major Máori departmental gods represented by wooden godsticks: left to right, Tūmatauenga, Tāwhirimātea, Tāne, Tangaroa, Rongo, and Haumia
The Aboriginal cultural beliefs including all Polynesian and specifically the Maori, state that when the red southern auroras reach their lands death follows blood and fire. This last week not only were the auroras red, but intensely charged blue. The solar storm that engulfed the planet lit up both poles with a KP Index of 7 near the current top of 9. Looking at the 6 Maori wooden deity, the 16 comets of the Mawangdui silk and paintings of arrows in the skies of the 1300's, they all have one thing on common: Omens in the heavens when red auroras and comets appear in our skies. This video is a comparison of all three, draw your own conclusion if you see the similarity that I see.


Sources

Comment: For more in-depth reading see: Earth Changes and the Human Cosmic Connection by Pierre Lescaudron, and Laura Knight-Jadczyk

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Info

NASA to release artificial clouds in the sky above Maryland coast


Town of Morningside, Maryland
Tue, 30 May 2017 20:47 UTC
Artificial Clouds
© Wikimedia Commons
NASA will begin testing a new system on Tuesday that entails the release of artificial clouds, along with a sounding rocket launch. The luminescent clouds will be released into the environment above the Mid-Atlantic coast in hopes of learning more about the ionosphere.

The test is scheduled to begin at 4:25 a.m. and last until 4:42 a.m. A sounding rocket will be launched from the Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia's eastern shore.
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Sun

Magnificent ring around the sun seen in Lake Tahoe, California

Amy Graff
SF Gate
Mon, 29 May 2017 14:29 UTC
Solar halo in Tahoe, California
© Amie Quirarte
A 22 degree halo was seen around the sun on Monday, May 29, 2017, in the Tahoe area

SFGate reader Amie Quirarte of Tahoe Vista noticed what's known as a 22 degree halo at around 1 p.m. while sitting in her backyard with her husband, and shared the image above.

"I have not seen this before," Quirarte, who works as a real estate agent in Tahoe, wrote in a message to SFGate. "I looked up in gratitude and noticed a rainbow around the sun. I instantly told my husband to check it out. When he reassured me I wasn't crazy, I took a couple photos and posted them on social media. Within a few minutes, I had comments from friends saying they could see the same phenomenon in the sky.
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Camera

Stunning Aurora Australis 'southern lights' illuminate night sky above New Zealand


RT
Mon, 29 May 2017 20:13 UTC
Southern lights
© janet_j2 / Instagram
People in New Zealand were treated to a spectacular light show Sunday as Aurora Australis, the so-called 'southern lights', lit up the night sky.

Clear skies provided perfect conditions for stargazers, allowing the natural phenomenon to be seen as far north as Christchurch on New Zealand's South Island.

Twitter and Instagram have been flooded with stunning photographs of the aurora since it appeared Sunday. Photographer Ché McPherson captured an incredible time lapse image from the Coronet Peak vantage point, just north of Queenstown.

McPhearson said he was in "total awe" during the experience, adding that the aurora was different from previous ones he'd seen. "This was beautifully dancing as it lit up the sky, with the most intense green I have seen from any aurora," he said.


Comment: On Saturday a large geomagnetic solar storm visible over the Vancouver area created a stunning opportunity for stargazers and photographers to catch a rare glimpse of the aurora borealis (northern lights).

"As Earth passed through the CME's wake, energetic particles poured through a crack in Earth's magnetosphere, sparking strong G3-class geomagnetic storms and bright auroras," reported SpaceWeather.com.

During the celestial event, the lights could be seen as far south as California and Arizona, and as far east as Ontario and Cape Cod, with shades of pink, purple and green lighting up the skies.



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Ice Cube

'Climate Change' Clobbers French Wine Crop

Anthony Watts
Watts Up With That?
Sun, 07 May 2017 14:58 UTC
france vineyards frozen 2017
© John Hodder – Collection CIVC
Walter Sobchak writes:

Unseasonable late April weather damaged vineyards in France and England

French Bordeaux vineyards could lose half of harvest due to frost on Sat May 6, 2017
REUTERS BORDEAUX, France "Bordeaux vineyards in southwest France could lose about half of their harvest this year after two nights of frost damaged the crop at the end of April, a wine industry official said on Saturday. ... Wines from the Cognac, Bergerac, and Lot-et-Garonne regions had also been affected ... 'For Bordeaux wines...we estimate that the impact will be a loss of about 50 percent, depend on how many buds can regrow'".

English vineyards report 'catastrophic' damage after severe April frost

GUARDIAN.COM "Chris White, the chief executive of Denbies Wine Estate in Surrey, said up to 75% of its crop was damaged by last week's sub-zero temperatures: "The temperature dropped to -6C and at that level it causes catastrophic damage to buds," he said. White said staff had worked in vain using special fans and heaters to protect the vineyard, which at 265 acres in the UK's biggest, after an Arctic blast swept across the UK. ... 'It's been a stark reminder of the difficulties faced by wine producers in the country, and yes ... at this moment we are asking ourselves whether we were mad to try and grow vines in England,' said Wenman"
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Cloud Grey

Amazing lenticular clouds over Syktyvkar, Russia (PHOTOS)


Sott.net
Fri, 26 May 2017 06:16 UTC
lenticular clouds over Syktyvkar, Russia
© vk.com
Amazing lenticular clouds over Syktyvkar, Russia on May 18th 2017 have been shared on vk.com social media service.

lenticular clouds over Syktyvkar, Russia
© vk.com

Comment: Increasingly unstable weather patterns may be assisting the formation of bizarre cloud patterns observed around the world recently. Factors which may contribute to these 'strange skies' are possible comet dust loading and changes in the layers of the atmosphere. See also:

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Rainbow

Georgia woman captures vivid circumhorizontal arc in the sky


The Weather Channel
Thu, 18 May 2017 13:30 UTC
Circumhorizontal arc in Georgia
© Facebook/Karen Dell SeagravesA circumhorizontal arc captured Wednesday in northwest Georgia.
A Georgia woman captured an image Wednesday of a rather stunning weather phenomenon.

Karen Dell Seagraves of Resaca in northwestern Georgia posted the photo of what looks like a vivid, rainbow-like stripe streaming across the sky to Facebook.

The odd but equally beautiful rainbow-like stripes are circumhorizontal arcs, or CAs.

Typically, you associate rainbows with rain and sunlight. However, CAs result from the refraction of sunlight through plate-shaped ice crystals.

For a CA to form, the sun has to be 58 degrees above the horizon. This is a rare sight at higher latitudes, where the sun is not sufficiently high above the horizon. In the middle latitudes, however, the spring and summer months offer the best chance to see this.
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Cloud Grey

Rare meteorological event creates cloud spectacle at Grand Canyon

Angela Fritz
The Independent (UK)
Thu, 18 May 2017 12:55 UTC
Grand Canyon cloud inversion
© The Washington PostClouds formed inside the Grand Canyon during a phenomenon that usually only happens once every several years
A sea of clouds lap at the shore. Waves roil and dissipate while the tide comes in and then flows out. This isn't an ocean, though. It's the Grand Canyon in very rare form.

On an average day — the vast majority of days, actually — air temperature gets cooler as you go higher in the atmosphere. Put very simply, the ground is warm and the sky is not.

That's why clouds form in the sky. If moist air rises up from ground-level, it cools in the sky and the moisture condenses into clouds, much like the condensation on a cold glass of lemonade during a hot summer afternoon. Water vapour in the air condenses on the glass.

In rare circumstances, the opposite happens — cold air is at the ground and warm air is above it. The atmosphere flips over and all of a sudden the clouds are at your feet.

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