A couple of days ago, I saw these rather spectacular cirrus clouds, or

horsetails, as I called them when I was a child.

Cirrus clouds are usually very high, between 5 and 25 kilometres (3 – 9 miles) above the ground. They often indicate the arrival of a front, or in the tropics, the possibility of a hurricane. Our weather remained steady (and hot), so these cirrus weren’t indicative of a change – they were fair weather cirrus.

What I found particularly interesting about these clouds was the corkscrew in the center of them. It looked like someone had swirled the clouds with a whisk. That corkscrew shape is also a type of cirrus, but they aren’t usually found together.

Cirrus clouds have been documented on Mars and Jupiter and are also responsible for light halos and winter sundogs.

Cheers from cirrus clouds of the Okanagan Valley. 🙂