#2583 "Singleton November Castellanus at Sunset"

The Wednesday sunset was a bit surprising. The gravity swells of altocumulus were adorned by ranks of castles in the sky. Altocumulus castellanus is the official name for the cloud turrets. They bespeak of mid level instability released in the upward motion of the atmospheric swells. The heart of the approaching storm was still well far to the west. 

If you should research "castellanus", you will likely find information like the following. "A castellanus is a cloud that displays at least in its upper part, cumuliform protuberances having the shape of turrets that give a crenellated aspect. Some of these turrets are higher than they are wide; they have a common base and seem to be arranged in a line. Some people call them "jellyfish" clouds should they also be producing virga - because of the small part dangling below each cloud, reminiscent of tentacles beneath jellyfish floating on the water's surface." Several of these castellanus clouds were indeed dropping tentacles of snow virga. 

Gravity waves of what looked like cirrus completed the bedtime story in the sunset sky. These ice crystals were actually the remains of jet contrails. I had watched those jets overhead probably on their way to Europe. The contrails were drifting southward as revealed by the sharp southern boundary along each of the ice crystal bands. I had written about this in "Weather Watching Guide - Contrails". 

The gravity waves within the contrails revealed that the atmosphere relative wind was from the southwest. All of these winds were consistent with the warm conveyor belt conceptual model. A autumn storm was on the way. Singleton was in line for the anticyclonic companion at least to start with. It would begin raining Thursday afternoon and last into Friday. 

If you paint what you see, nature will make sure that it actually makes sense. Most other things in the human realm make no sense at all. 

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