#2988 "Sunny Side of Life"

#2988 "Sunny Side of Life"
20 (height) X 16 (width) and 0.750 (3/4) profile (inches).
Started 9:30 am Tuesday, December 2nd, 2025

Wintry weather was going to dominate conditions on the following day, a Tuesday, so I planned ahead by looking for untapped sunflower fodder. This is the Studio version of the plein air #2419 "September Sunflower". I just wanted to have some fun. 

Themes need to be in groups of at least three, and this painting would complete the trio, including #2986 and #2987. The photographic inspiration was taken on September 15th, 2020, at 14:23 pm; also a Tuesday. 

These particular blooms were also featured in other works from various angles included within the collage below: #2420 "In the Shade of the Sunflower", #2421 "Sunflowers Turned to the Sun"; #2933 "Sunflowers Endure",   #2934 "Sunflower Bouquet for a Winter Day", and #2935 "September Sunflower Reflections"

We planted three sunflower seeds in the COVID spring of 2020. Chipmunks got two of them, but the survivor turned into a giant worthy of Jack and the Beanstalk. A tape measure had it at ten feet tall, and it still grew a few inches after that. A support tied to an adjacent boulder prevented it from being blown over by the onshore Singleton winds. 

Vincent would have loved to paint those flowers. I know I did. I used a canvas I stretched on a frame built by my Dad. My goal is to use all of those frames he constructed before I head for the big easel in the sky... my Dad was a special person!

Part of my philosophy, inspired by my parents, is to try to live on the "sunny side of life", which is the title for this expression of nature. See the good in nature and people. As my Dad told me as a kid, "Only worry about yourself"; do not concern yourself with the deeds of others, no matter how greedy, criminal or hypocritical they might be. 

Sometimes I still struggle, especially when I leave the Singleton Sanctuary or pay attention to the news. 

For example, climate change has never been so obvious after years of record-smashing heat, drought, floods, wildfires and storms. Species are going extinct daily due to human activities. Nature, science and even art are under attack. This sounds very much like Armageddon; the last battle between good and evil before the Day of Judgment.

Teetering off the delicate knife-edge of the fragile atmospheric balance is catastrophic, far beyond anyone's comprehension. That might be the problem!  

No one has witnessed what the Earth is about to endure. Fright for the future might be central in the lives of people around the globe. Fear is a destructive emotion that encourages people to abandon rationality and focus on their immediate survival rather than long-term good. Politicians are wilfully dumb and blind to everything beyond four years into the future. Where is the wisdom or leadership in that?  Rage follows, and that emotion is being harnessed by populist politicians. 

Greed is another powerful emotion. The lust for more and even more by corporations that profit from fossil fuels has pushed the Earth over the brink. Greed also fuels power, and power corrupts. Scientists around the globe have taken up that challenge, so there is no need for me to repeat the facts here. 

My decades of PowerPoint presentations and blogs about the science of climate change have been futile. Governments could have acted, but have been quite inadequate and self-serving. The "war on science" continues to rage, and not just in the United States! The war on Canadian science started quietly in the 70s and then ramped up in the 90s. Programs were designed to fail, opening the door for numerical solutions and now AI. I witnessed it happen... powerless to make a difference.

The United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP) has been discussing and negotiating climate change since 1995. Dithering with nil positive impact is a good description - see the upper left portion of the following graphic. COP30, held in November 2025 in Belém, Brazil, "required" building a four-lane highway through the Amazon forest... Insanity? Madness! The final outcome from COP30 did not even mention the fossil fuel elephant in the room, and there was no agreement on binding commitments. 

Upon reflection, the facts of the Industrial Revolution are even more disturbing. Science has only been in political favour and encouraged when it supported corporate interests. In fact, those in power have always been at war with any science that did not align with their personal gain. Think about that!

May I digress with a personal example of science under attack! 

Being naturally curious was one of my curses. There were many innovations I wished to explore while employed as a meteorologist. "Project Time" to do so was severely limited in a government department which was always being underfunded and downsized. My manager devised an auction-based bidding system required to apply for the chance to conduct creative, original research. One had to demonstrate potential gains (economic gains preferred) that might be achieved through a minimum amount of time. Basically, knowing the result before doing the research. That is not how creativity functions. 

I worked a lot of overtime back then, especially during severe weather outbreaks. Logically, I took most overtime compensation as time off! I would appropriately use those mini-vacations to replace the time already forfeited so that I could spend it with my family and enjoy a balanced life.  I also continued research on my pet projects. Of course, there was a bonus of more time off earned with respect to hours worked. The bureaucratic bean counters had yet to figure out how to tax time off. My remedy was initially successful. I did a lot of research and also painted up a storm! Life was constructive, positive and creative. Fun!

Senior managers did not appreciate my "time off" approach to life. In fact , they hated it! That was an era of slash and burn in the public service. High-level bureaucrats devised draconian measures to address my rogue tendencies. Combating those actions was futile, as Human Resources typically sides with their employer. One happy exception was my successful efforts to achieve maternity benefits for males in the Atmospheric Environment Service. I never benefited from Parental Leave, but those obvious inconsistencies had to be challenged!   

Much to my wife’s chagrin, my home computers ran 24/7 seeking answers to questions that intrigued me. My radar friend and expert expert Ron built all of my home computers and still does. Creativity simply can't happen if one is fearful of making a mistake. As well, the hard drive on my office cubicle computer had been maliciously "reformatted", necessitating that I had to move my research to the safety of home. My investigations had the potential to address many important issues of the day. For me, research was like play… not work at all. So I researched and studied while at the weather centre and at home.

The research was quite successful and took several branches of science into new territories. The science found support around the globe, especially in Europe, Scandinavia and Australia. For example, using raw data, my nested, modular Visual Basic code could complete a year of performance measurement in a few hours, creating 3-D verification in time and space, with consideration of the lead-time of the prediction. New applications of remote sensing data were also my forte. 

There was considerable "eye rolling" by those who could not or would not understand, having not even made the effort to read the research papers or the very simplified executive summaries. Wilful blindness, if you will. Not much has changed. 

In my naivety, I thought we were all on the same team, desiring to provide better service through science. My core belief was that the human armed with pattern recognition skills and conceptual models was an important, if not vital, part of the forecast cycle, and that the human skill could be measured by a proper performance measurement method. The value of meteorological and climatological services to the Canadian economy were far more than the pittance in the budgets.

 

I became aware that my human skill centric opinion was a most unpopular view in the age of computer modelling and the burgeoning field of artifical intelligence. I was unaware of any war, which made the blind-sided skirmishes that much more damaging. Hard drives crashed, data sources vanished, and obstacles to research were erected. Program cuts escalated. Prime Minister Harper even forbade scientists to mention the words "climate" and "change". Ironically, a bureucratic autopen scrawled that name on my official retirement papers which appropriately occurred on Ground Hog Day in 2012.

Happily, retirement was just the start of an unencumbered search for the real truth, not contrained by narcissistic bureucracy and predetermined results. My research blossomed, partnered with friends from COMET, NOMEK and EUMETSAT until COVID came along late in 2019. My journey of curiosity still continues, mostly alone, embracing nature. Some work remains to be published but that material may appear in my blogs or my art. The truth is always worthwhile.

Those were my experiences, and back then, the war on science was very personal. 

Remembering that science is simply the search for the truth, the above discussion can be succinctly summarized as the following, a favourite of mine, which I first used in the 1980s:

Truth is only tolerated when it serves those in power. 

The corollary of the above statement is that every truth not approved by the authoritative, big-brother bosses will be discredited and fought tooth and nail. The unsanctioned truths far outnumber those that are endorsed as a direct function of how dictatorial the leadership might be. Recall:

"abstebos is carcinogenic", 

"smoking is bad for your health", 

"liquid natural gas is not an energy solution", ... the list is sadly endless. 

My personal favourite is from March 1912 Popular Mechanics, found on page 341, 

"burning coal ... tends to make the air a more effective blanket for the earth and to raise its temperature. This effect may be considerable in a few centuries." 

Climate science was still in its infancy more than a hundred years ago. Meteorology and other earth sciences have come a very long way since then. Correspondingly, the forecast has improved immeasurably with more data, satellite technology and a much better understanding of the many factors and feedback tipping points at play within the earth-atmosphere system. Existential impacts are occurring now as we enter the verification stage of that explicit 1912 forecast. 

Solar Photovoltaic just keeps getting better...
We also employ passive solar and solar hot water
water delivered for free to our doorstep.

Given the above, the only solution must be found in economic forces that could drive the fossil fools out of business with cheaper and better green energies. Canada could have led the way, but didn't - oil and natural gas spoke louder. The harm of carbon and the potential power from the sun were "inconvenient truths" to Canadian corporations and politicians. 

There is certainly no time to waste; given the momentum of the climate, it is already too late to avoid 2.5 degrees Celsius of warming above pre-industrial levels expected by 2080. The Earth will reach a life-ending 4 degrees Celsius higher by 2100 due to feedback mechanisms. Even moderate CO2 emissions must lead to 7°C of warming by 2200, but likely much higher... 

So I struggle with undue wealth, privilege, and a dearth of empathy. Unaccountable power wielded by self-serving and often corrupt multinational corporations and politicians is simply wrong. A few hypocritical, greedy individuals with economic and/or military power have knowingly, with intent, steered the Earth and all of nature on an uninhabitable course for many thousands of years? The unsurvivable impacts start within decades. In the battle of Armageddon, evil is beating the hell out of good.

Ultimately, nature and physics must still rule. Simply, the Earth will "Ctrl-Alt-Delete" and start again with another version of life. In the last four billion years, there have been five major mass extinctions where 70% to 95% of species were wiped out.  This will be number six, and humans should be first in line in the roughly 80% of dead-end species that will become extinct. Afterall, this extinction is the direct result of human action. Maybe the mega fauna and flora will give it another go? 

My simple plan of staying home with a nil carbon footprint will not change anything. The power brokers don't care and never did, despite the glad-handing and rhetoric of politicians. However, we will diligently continue to directly harness the energy of the sun, plant trees and support nature within the Singleton Sanctuary. The "sunny side of life" must flourish locally, fuelled by solar radiation that passively delivers heat, electricity and hot water to the doorstep. The cold trough of the larger atmospheric flow, which is favoured over eastern Ontario as a result of climate change, will help to keep us a bit cooler for a while. Life is good for now, but it is getting much harder to laugh...   

The Pacific Energy wood stove burns outside air for combustion and is about 80% efficient.
Only dead and fallen trees are used for firewood. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint Collection. Thank you for reading, and stay well!

Warmest regards, and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick 

#2987 "Sunflower Friends"

#2987 "Sunflower Friends"
20 X 16 inches oils on stretched canvas.
Started at 10 am Saturday, November 22nd, 2025. 

I was starting to dither on #2986 "Tangled Singleton Sunflowers"! The entire canvas was blanketed in wet oil! I needed to move on, and the best way to do that is to pick up another canvas. I still had a lot of "sunflower" oils on my two palettes, so another sunflower painting was the logical choice. 

This is the twin of #2785 "June Sunflowers" which was painted from life, only flipped horizontally. Both are on 16-by-20-inch canvases. It amuses me that the numbers of each painting are appropriately jumbled dyslexically. I experimented with another colour combination employing the complement of yellow as a light shade on the wall and something different on the table. The main goal was and remains to have some fun with the paints. 

I have also painted my share of sunflowers over the years. There might be more than this that do not include “sunflower” in the title. Those paintings follow chronologically.

The Golden Ratio described in #2986 "Tangled Singleton Sunflowers" is always in my mind and art. Sometimes the incorporation of  Φ (pronounced "phi" - my name without the "l") is deliberate, but often Φ is accidental or by instinct. Something "golden" can just be appreciated without understanding why. 

I hope you are having a "Sunflower Day". There is still so much to learn about the Golden Rule... 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint Chronological Collection. 

Warmest regards, and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick 

#2986 "Tangled Singleton Sunflowers"

#2986 "Tangled Singleton Sunflowers" 
48 X 36 inches oils on stretched canvas.
Started at 9:30 am Monday, November 10th, 2025

Sunflowers prompt thoughts of Ukraine and Vincent Van Gogh…recent and past tragic tales. Sunflowers are also all about art and science. These are the methods I use to learn more about nature and the paradise we call Earth. Nature holds the answers to the questions we have not even asked yet. 

From an artistic perspective, I enjoy painting sunflowers in all of their twisted and tangled glory. Some of these blooms were past prime, while others were just starting to shine. The purple shades on the marble ridge caught my eye, along with the fiery red of some of the leaves. There is indeed purple to be found in nature if one only looks. These sunflowers were unintentionally planted as birdseed the previous winter. Like flowers, birds and nature just keep on giving. 

Snow on the Pumpkin, November 9th, 2025 

The first snow of the season had arrived the day before. I decided to paint in the Studio in front of the wood stove and listen to tunes while tackling this rather large canvas. This one is for Linda.

The simple sunflower is also the poster child for science. The sunflower solved the mathematics required to efficiently pack its seeds as they are prepared for dispersal and the next generation. The flower even devised the physics to turn and harvest solar energy all day long. They stand tall in the plant world, and there is still much that we can learn from a "simple" flower. 

Euclid, the Greek "father of geometry" figured out the magic of the "golden rectangle" way back in 300 BC. The following figures will save a lot of words and still explain the wizardry of the "golden ratio" Φ (pronounced "phi" - my name without the "l"). Golden rectangles are related to squares and smaller golden rectangles. The same golden ratio Φ can be deduced from the Fibonacci sequence, which is also described below. 

Sunflowers determined, through Darwin's natural selection, that the most efficient way to pack their seeds together is the "golden angle". Each seed is rotated by about 137.5 degrees from its neighbours so that there is no overlap. The figure to the right details that the golden angle is the smaller angle subtended by portions of a circle's circumference that are in the proportion of the golden ratio, Φ. The seed head of a sunflower is mesmerizing. Nature is simply amazing!

If the golden ratio, Φ, is not enough for you, sunflowers also follow the sun through a process called heliotropism, the diurnal or seasonal motion of plant parts. Differential stem growth controlled by their internal circadian rhythm controls the orientation of the sunflower bloom. During the day, the east side of the stem elongates faster, causing the young flower to bend westward following the sun. At night, the west side of the stem grows more, which causes the head to turn back east, ready to face the sunrise. This tracking behaviour stops once the sunflower reaches maturity. Mature plants generally stay locked in an eastward-facing position. This is because their priority shifts from growth to reproduction, and the eastward position is beneficial for attracting pollinators. 

The sunflower is even important in art history. Here again, pictures are worth thousands of words. Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) said: "The sunflower is mine, in a way". I hope that he would have shared the sunflower with me. I almost share my birthday with Vincent except that his was 100 years earlier than mine. 

Vincent painted the sunflower series primarily to decorate the "Yellow House" in Arles for his friend and fellow artist Paul Gauguin.  That house was painted by Vincent in 1888 and named "The Yellow House" perhaps by his sister-in-law Johanna van Gogh-Bonger.  Jo dedicated herself to preserving and organizing Vincent’s paintings. Without her tireless efforts, we might never have known the magnitude of Van Gogh’s genius. Her work established Vincent's legacy, which is synonymous with genius, emotion, and tragedy. Jo made certain that Vincent’s art received the recognition it deserved. 

Yellow can also be a tricky colour. Van Gogh used the series as an opportunity to explore and perfect his use of different shades of yellow and how they might be combined to create harmony and contrast. The following images trace some of those studies.

Paul Gaugin even thought of Vincent as "The Painter of Sunflowers" and painted him that way. 

For the record, Paul Gauguin was an accomplished and serious student of fencing (with sharp swords, not wooden boards) and may have "accidentally" sliced off Vincent's ear during a heated argument. Perhaps Vincent claimed he razored off his ear to protect his friend from jail. As well, there is a theory that Vincent was "accidentally" shot by two teenagers enamoured with the "wild west-cowboy craze" of the day. Vincent claimed suicide to shield them from punishment. Vincent was clearly an empathetic soul, always concerned for the welfare of others. He was not "mad". It is not crazy to be compassionate or empathetic.

Among other science books, I read the "New Scientist" bi-weekly, an online magazine. Gravitons, quantum mechanics, dark matter and dark energy are frequent topics. I read, but I still don't know what they are. Nor does anyone else really. I wonder if the "Golden Ratio", first discovered by Euclid, might have some clues that have been overlooked. That natural constant impacts shapes from the very small to the very large and might hold some answers.

Not surprisingly, November 23 is Fibonacci Day, an annual holiday that honours one of the most influential mathematicians of the Middle Ages - Leonardo Bonacci. Fibonacci Day is celebrated on November 23rd to honour Italian mathematician Leonardo of Pisa (also known as Fibonacci) and his famous number sequence. The date 11/23 was chosen because the digits 1,1,2,3 are the first four numbers in his sequence.

I hope you are having a "Sunflower Day". There is still so much to learn. This composition may be too long for a blog, but I meant and felt every word. 

Finally, a photograph of a painting, regardless of the resolution, just can't touch the original. The colours may be true, but they can only go so far. This would be obvious to anyone who has been nose-to-nose with one of Vincent's works. I used morning light streaming into the Studio to illustrate this fact with respect to #2986 "Tangled Singleton Sunflowers". Oils and light are a living thing and very 3-dimensional. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint Collection. 

I wanted to start 2026 with the beauty of the "simple" sunflower - something positive and bright.

Warmest regards, and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick 

#1471 "White Canoe"

#1471  "White Canoe"
11 x 14 (inches) oils on canvas.
Started 2:00 pm Monday, September 22nd, 2014.

Science is the search for the truth - at least an ever-improving understanding of what is real. Art is a personal version of that truth from the perspective of a creator. Together, art and science have been a wonderful life full of curiosity and discovery. Being an eternal student makes existence exciting and worthwhile - even though I still do not grasp dark matter, dark energy or even how gravity works. For me, "spooky action at a distance", "spukhafte fernwirkung" in German,  Einstein's famous phrase for quantum entanglement, should also apply to gravity. Gravity and entanglement might not even be forces at all, but the result of perspective and mass warping time-space. So much left to discover!  

Every painting in my 3000 portfolio is a search for the truth. After some reflection, I thought that #1471 "White Canoe", about halfway along my journey, best summed up the story. That painting was a totally plein air effort in northern Killarney while standing in front of the Whitefish River Cottages. 

I turned around after completing #1470 “Whitefish River Cottages” pictured to the right, and was struck by the white canoe pulled up on the beach. That canoe was on loan to me as I had left "Margaritaville" at home. I had paddled that craft many miles by then, so knew it well. 

The canoe didn’t actually hit me, but I instantly saw my next painting. I liked the curve of the gunwales and the reflections and colours in the water. Just like snow, a white canoe is not white. Over the next hour or so, the paint just flowed, and I tried very hard not to get in its way. I was on the verge of wrecking some of the accidental strokes that really sparkled. I stopped and did not touch the canvas again. It is what it is.

The bright water on the far side of the canoe is due to the sunlight reflecting from the high albedo, white hull. If you paint what you observe, it can never be wrong, even if you may not know the full explanation.

I was blessed to be at the Charlton Lake Camp in Willisville to paint and deliver presentations on climate change and the art and science of Tom Thomson. 

Some old and new friends were also there ... Jim Waddington attended the same high school in Brockville, graduating from BCIVS in 1959.  Jim became a professor of physics at McMaster University, specializing in nuclear physics. Jim even married Sue, his high school sweetheart, as did I. We share much in common. Jim and Sue have a passion for canoeing and art, and wrote the beautiful "In the Footsteps of the Group of Seven". I treasure an autographed copy. 

Artists Mary and Ed Bartram were also at Charlton Lake Camp. Ed Bartram is considered one of Canada's foremost painters and printmakers. We exchanged books on Tower Mountain while hiking. Mary and Ed were planning to study "The Weather of Ontario" while I prize my autographed copy of "Rockscapes". Sadly, Ed would pass away in 2019. 

Jon and Kerry Butler hosted a terrific dinner at their lakeside home and introduced us to some of the local painting places of the Group of Seven. I also painted all around Tower Mountain, Grace, Charlton, and Frood Lakes. The autumn of 2014 was beautiful and inspirational. 

For me, art and science have never been about commerce. The focus was always about learning, making something good and then trying to make that something even better. It is easy to make friends with kindred souls along the way. The days, months, years and decades have passed way too quickly, but there is not much, if anything, I would change, even if I could. The hope is that my best work will be found in the future.

Life is good, and remember, you gotta laugh! 

May health and happiness bless you in 2026. 

For this and much more art, you can proceed straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint 2024 Collection. Thank you for reading, and stay well!

Warmest regards, and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick 

#2985 "October First Ice 2014"

#2985 "October First Ice 2014"
11 x 14 Inches oils on stretched canvas. 
Started at 9:00 am Sunday, November 9th, 2025.

I photographed this inspiration at 4 pm on Saturday, October 4th, 2014. What caught my eye back then was certainly the clouds and the subtle crepuscular rays cast by the setting sun. What seized my eye more than a decade later was quite different. I was searching for inspiration during the first snowfall of the winter of 2025-2026. Heavy snow and freezing rain encouraged me to remain in the Studio in front of the wood stove, listening to tunes. 

The contrasts in the climate were glaringly obvious. I was quite taken aback by the high water levels and the extent of the ice over the western basin of Singleton Lake in 2014, as seen in early October. There was fresh snow on that ice, contrasting strongly with the dark, backlit colours of the far shore. The 2025 water levels were near record low values, and the first snowflakes of the year had just arrived. There was no hint of any ice anywhere on the lake in November, a month after that image in 2014. 

The fossil fuel corporations would rightly claim that a single weather event does not constitute climate change. The summation of weather over a few decades does constitute climate, and both have been changing. I have written about these issues for years. See "The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery - Become Informed and Involved in a Good Way" and "Big carbon's strategic response to global warming, 1950-2020" among many such blogs.

Tim Flannery in "The Weather Makers" investigates “the corrupt relationship between government and industry." David R. Boyd exposes the simple game plan of Big Oil in “The Optimistic Environmentalist”: 

•  Deny the existence of any problems. 
•  Pay charlatan scientists to lie and claim that their products or emissions are safe. 
•  Finance scientific journals with official-sounding titles to publish bogus articles based on junk science. 
•  Buy the support or acquiescence of politicians and bureaucrats. 

For me, this painting will serve as a reminder of what once was. Climate is a very delicate balance between many immense physical forces, and human activities have upset those precarious equilibria. Corrective measures are already too late, even in 2025. 

 For this and much more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint 2024 Collection. Thank you for reading, and stay well!

Warmest regards, and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick 

#2984 "October 25th Singleton Sunset"

#2984 "October 25th Singleton Sunset" 
16 x 20 (inches) oils on stretched canvas.
 Started 9:30 am on Monday, November 3rd, 2025

The western shore of Singleton Lake was in darkness at 6 pm on Saturday, October 25, 2025. If you look closely, the details of the homes can still be seen in the dim. The west basin of the lake was rippled by the northwesterly breeze and thus reflected the sky overhead. The eastern basin in the lee of the Singleton forest was calm and mirrored the sunset hues. The stratocumulus clouds were shaped by the brisk upper winds. The low water levels had recovered a bit, and only the head of the "swimming bear" could be seen adjacent to the second "Turtle Island". I never tire of the natural beauty of the Frontenac Arch Biosphere. 

Now for some interesting science. 

Everything in the atmosphere ocean can be described as either lines or swirls. The two are intrinsically connected through the Deformation Zone Conceptual Model. The interactive connections between lines and swirls are explained within the three-dimensional fluid. Every sky is an opportunity to apply these basic principles. You can start with either a line or a swirl. They both lead you to a better understanding of what is actually occurring in the world around you. In sharp contrast, I find it is best to never try to understand politics; nature actually makes sense. 

The following satellite images summarize most everything that you need to know. Every line and swirl tells a story. Singleton is located at the yellow star. The large occluding low was well to the southwest.

The deformation zone conceptual model can be applied to my ground-based painting location. Singleton, located at the yellow star, was actually under the small cyclonic swirl on the opposite side of the large deformation zone that was controlling the larger weather pattern. 

The col in the deformation zone can be found along the divergent edge of the relative cloud-free delta-shaped zone; the green triangle labelled "D" in the above graphic. Neither companion of the warm conveyor belt can effectively deliver moisture into this "Bermuda Triangle" of the atmosphere. The rising anticyclonic circulation on the warm, right side of the jet stream carries high, cirrus clouds. The descending dry and cold conveyor belts spin up the cyclonic swirl, especially at mid and lower levels of the atmosphere.  Lower layers of cloud get caught up in that cyclonic swirl but are not directed into the green triangle. 

Young and developing systems will typically not have the high-level cirrus flow wrapped cyclonically around the low/X swirl. I have grey-stippled out the cyclonic branch of the high-level cirrus flow in the following graphic to illustrate this point. That cirrus, cyclonic branch is only seen in older and mature weather systems referred to as cut-off or occluded lows.   

The relative intensity of the swirls, as diagnosed from their size and shape, can reveal much about the age, strength and motion of the storm.  The low/X swirl in the storm of October 25th was more pronounced than the high/N and actually included the high-level, cyclonic cirrus flow. The occluded low was mature, strong and slow-moving. 

As a brief refresher, it is important to remember that the atmospheric patterns are churned within the atmospheric frame of reference, moving with the mean flow. My easel is affixed to the rotating Earth, which is a very non-inertial, or accelerating, frame of reference. This means that an object in this Earth frame will have an acceleration even if no real forces are acting on it.

Because of the Earth's rotation, objects appear to move in ways not explained by real forces alone, requiring the introduction of fictitious forces like the Coriolis force and centrifugal force. The Coriolis force deflects moving objects, causing them to veer right in the Northern Hemisphere and left in the Southern Hemisphere. This is the essence of the Coriolis Hand approach I use to describe the resulting horizontal and vertical motions in the atmosphere. It is most appropriate that your right hand is your Coriolis Hand if you live in the Northern Hemisphere, and your left hand should you live south of the equator. The rotation of the Earth greatly impacts large-scale movements of air and water, and the effects are explained by the Coriolis Force for the sake of convenience.  

A previous painting, #2982 "Singleton Sunset on the Ides of October", goes into some details on the important conceptual models and their application. You can also find more information in The Art and Science of Phil the Forecaster Blog. 

This time, let's just appreciate the peace and quiet of a sunset created by the small cyclonic swirl well ahead of the storm. The weather does not need to be big to be beautiful. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint 2024 Collection. Thank you for reading!

Warmest regards, and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick 

#2983 "October Sunrise Thunderstorm"

 #2983 "October Sunrise Thunderstorm"
16 x 20 oils on canvas. 
Started 9 am on Sunday, November 2nd, 2025

Distant flashes from a cold frontal October thunderstorm were visible in the night sky, which was still very dark at 6 am. There had been no mention in the forecast, but the lightning was clear. The light was enough to wake me up, so I decided to get up and enjoy the show. It was then that I decided that the unusual sunrise colours and clouds needed to be interpreted in oils. Those rich rose, and golden hues would not last long - just minutes...

I charged right into the oils on these thunderstorms. Paintings #2981 "Singleton October Sunset on Summer" and #2982 "Singleton Sunset on the Ides of October" were not nearly completed and still very wet. But I needed to get these new colours down on a canvas.  I also needed to write down the many memories that flowed while I painted.

Meteorological overview from 6:40 am, Wednesday, October 22nd, 2025

Some very thoughtful people, like physicist Richard Feynman have some very refined techniques they employ to thoroughly learn about a subject. In summary, that approach goes something like the following.

"If you want to learn something, read about it. If you want to understand something, write about it. If you want to master something, teach it". 

One can add "paint it" to that quote. The swirl of the brush with the accurate colours I witnessed revealed dynamics and structures that were not immediately obvious. I really got to know those October sunrise thunderstorms during this exercise. My goal was to communicate and share those insights through the textures and colours on the canvas. 

Richard Feynman also believed that “the world is much more interesting than any one discipline.” There is a big difference between knowing the name of something like "thunderstorm" and knowing the dynamics of a "cumulonimbus". That summarized my approach to meteorology in general, but also everything I experienced in nature. Understanding the physics of the structures in a conceptual model allows you to use that knowledge more broadly on another convective day. The process of immersing oneself in the environment allows one to sense and really appreciate what reality is, and maybe become a better plein air painter. 

I always strove to become a better teacher, too, even if that was not in my job description.  The goal was to learn about the heart and soul of science and the planet. So much so that I might be able to translate the complicated jargon and math of textbooks into simpler conceptual models that anyone with an interest might easily understand. This process takes much longer, but the effort is worthwhile.

One needs to quietly reflect to reach into those depths. The late sixties atmosphere in high school at the Brockville Collegiate and Vocational School, BCIVS, provided the luxury of time to do just that. BCIVS was a terrific opportunity to absorb knowledge and to participate in music and sports. I loved learning and excelled. 

The next opportunity for such reflection came during night shifts at the various weather centres across Canada, where I worked as a meteorologist. "Eureka" moments would often come after such contemplation. Thoughtful examination of the reality of hand-plotted weather maps and hard-copy satellite imagery was essential. The atmosphere could be understood and brought to life through imaginative mental conceptual models. I shared everything with my coworkers, and sometimes I was successful in lighting that flame in others. Good times. 

Thankfully, teaching and creating learning materials officially entered my job description after a 2004 competition and the ultimate educational opportunity at COMET in Boulder, Colorado. 

It was an absolutely wonderful and productive final decade for my official meteorological career - real science and service in the company of passionate professionals. Imagine creating 3D water vapour imagery and immersive virtual reality conceptual models that one could walk through! Many of my midnight-shift eureka moments were finally published, and I am blogging the rest as time permits. 

Richard Phillips Feynman 1918-1988

So there is the story of some unforecast, nocturnal cold frontal October thunderstorms and my simple philosophical foundation for a happy life. 

• Be voraciously curious, 
• Never stop learning,
• Remain passionately empathetically helpful,
• Surround yourself and family at all times with nature,
• Stand up strong and be counted for what is obviously right.
• Remain respectful, but always be cautiously skeptical of authority. Power can corrupt. 

Richard Feynman did all of these things and would be a wonderful role model for any generation. Feynman's quote to the right is intended with a positive slant to encourage the cultivation of the arts so that we might all better understand. The arts need to return to the educational system...

To be clear, the science that Richard Feynman exemplifies is under attack... and not just in the United States. Corporations profiting from fossil fuels are still very much in control. There has been no abatement of the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint 2024 Collection. 

Warmest regards, and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick