#2560 "Singleton Late Summer Storm Sunset"

#2560 "Singleton Late Summer Storm Sunset" 11x14

The warm conveyor belt of a late summer system was spreading across the western horizon. Recently the systems had all been fairly dry. 

The cyclonic companion with thin streets of cirrostratus veiled the deep blue of the higher elevation angles in the sunset sky. These Langmuir streaks of thin cirrus were higher and neatly spaced. Looking closely, one could discern the gravity waves in the stable layer of the Langmuir streaks. This waves were perpendicular to the southwesterly winds aloft with the warm conveyor belt and consistent with the conveyor belt conceptual model. 

The col in the altocumulus deformation zone was directly west of Singleton Lake. The darker, purple altostratus clouds were confined behind the lower level deformation zone. 

Northerly winds were rolling streets of dark, turbulent stratocumulus clouds in the northerly winds. The surface winds had already decoupled from the winds just above the surface due to the cooling that sunset brings and the associated inversion. The winds were nearly calm at the surface and the wave action on the lake was decaying into a flat and reflective mirror. At the same time, I imagined that the wind shear was rolling pencils along a table top and forming the cloud swirls that were also embedded in the cloud streets. 

It is not often that this much meteorology can be witnessed in one collection of clouds. This is what drew me to complete this painting - so to speak. The title is a bit of an alliteration but that is just fine. 

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