Tag Archives: clouds

nature, Photography

Glimpses

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I took a long Boxing Day walk to get some exercise after a couple of days of too many good things to eat.

We have had a lot of rain, so our resident mallard duck flock was very happy.

Our overcast was breaking up, and though I’m hopeful of a bit of sun, the forecast isn’t in my favour. We are slated to get lots more rain over the next week …

… so we will be getting much more of this instead.

Nevertheless, there is a counterpoint. The seasonal lights look lovely against the grey, rainy sky, reminding all of us that the sun will be back.

Happy Friday.

nature, Photography

Prairie Cloud Beauty

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I have always loved the beauty of prairie cloud formations. Although they can grow into very damaging storms, most of the time they drop their wind and rain load and then dissipate.

The triangular cloud on the left is what is known as a “cloud with vertical development.” These are the ones that can cause storms, especially thunderstorms.

Its lower half was dropping a lot of rain near the Calgary area.

Although this one was showing a lot of vertical development, it was also on its own, not interacting with other clouds.

Southern Alberta seems to have recently received a lot of rain – courtesy of these thunderheads – a good thing considering that there were lingering drought conditions from last year.

Happy Tuesday.

nature, Photography

Rain Storm

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All photos taken on May 8, 2024.

Our road trip is well underway and we are now travelling in the United States. We left Medicine Hat, Alberta, early this morning during a rather intense rain storm.

During the night prior to our departure, the wind was howling and the rain was furiously pounding down.

I checked aviation weather several times and saw that there was a huge trough of seriously bad weather stretching all the way from northern Alberta across most of Saskatchewan and into North Dakota. That’s an enormous area.

This system is expected to last for two days and drop a lot of moisture on an area that has been extremely dry over the last year, so while it wasn’t bringing the best driving conditions, it was at least bringing much needed water.

The clouds were huge and only about 150 metres (500 ft) above the ground. Comprised of dense, multiple layers, they were not to be ignored.

After many hours of these conditions, we finally saw some cloud breaks as we neared Minnesota.

It was a difficult drive with the high crosswind continuously pushing the vehicle and the rain beating the windshield to the point of occasionally obscured visibility, so we were very happy to stop for the day! I hope tomorrow’s weather is better.

Cheers from the North Dakota/Minnesota boundary.