#2209 "Spring at Pine Island"

I was out for a paddle around Singleton Lake on Saturday April 28th, 2018. I was on my way back around midday and looking for rainy day subject matter for the studio. I always like the trees on this point of land jutting out into Singleton Lake. The sky was overcast stratus and the winds were light - perfect for paddling. I include the bow of my canoe "Margaritaville" in the painting to help tell the story. There is nothing quite as quiet and relaxing as a paddle around the lake. I can paddle silently in the canoe whereas the kayak strokes make a bit of noise.

This is the same point I painted in 1713 "December Morn" , #1714 "White Pine Island" and #1908 "Cirrious Stories". Mr Singleton who had is farm just southwest of Singleton Lake also had a structure on this island. Apparently Mr Singleton kept his dairy cows on our land which is quite a row from the shore across Singleton Lake to the far rocky point. He would row across this expanse twice a day and return with his pails of milk.
The remains of the roof of his shed on "Pine Island" is all that remains of the structure where he kept his boat and whatever other supplies he required. There were a few of the old square nails still in the roof trusses.

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#2208 "Classic Cumulus Congestus"

The Langmuir streets in the surface of the lake always interest me. Singleton Lake is just south of the eastward extension of the Lake Ontario lake breeze convergence line.

As a result convection tends to ripple along just to the north of the lake. Lyndhurst and Delta often gets soaked while Singleton stays on the sunny side of the street. This particular towering cumulus was probably over Seeley's Bay at the time of my painting. We missed the shower entirely.

Distinct bands of calm water were parallel to the strong southwesterly winds above the surface of the lake. These bands in the water reveal the associated vertical motions therein. I like to think of elongated helical tubes stretched out along the direction of the strong winds. The three-dimensional circulation in these helical tubes interact and these bands result in every fluid whether it be water or the atmosphere.

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#2207 "Singleton Afternoon Thunderstorm"

I had just gotten back from a week of painting on the Dumoine with CPAWS. I was still a bit tired. I watched this thunderstorm roll in from the southwest. I should have gone out and painted it right then and there but I took a photo to put this in my back pocket for a rainy day. That wet weather arrived in November. The colours of any storm are special. There were earth tones in this base of this particular thunderstorm and all of these reflected in the calm waters of Singleton Lake. There is indeed a calm before most storms.

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#2206 "Dark Cherry Sunset"

This sunset sky was only 15 minutes after #2203 "Langmuir Streak Sunset" on Thursday September 6th, 2018. The sky changes in seconds at sunset. The yellow sunset had changed to cherry red with more purple hues at higher angles. The tropical moisture from Hurricane Gordon was responsible for these spectacular scenes. I was not making those colours up.

The broad Langmuir streaks parallel to the jet stream were still evident. The gravity waves in the cirrus at the tropopause were also still obvious. The deformation zone banding perpendicular to the jet steam winds were missing. After all, it was getting dark. The warm conveyor belt flowing with the jet stream and the baroclinic zone cirrus foretold of the arrival of the tropical moisture and rain with the remains of Hurricane Gordon. Every line in the atmosphere has an interesting story to tell. I was living in my meteorological laboratory and hoping I was not a mad scientist. Art and sunsets always make me happy.

The porch light was still on at Dale's home on the western shore of Singleton. The bright speck on the shore of Singleton Lake was no accident. The west shore was in darkness while we get to sit and enjoy the colours of the setting sun. Life is all about location.

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#2205 "November 13 Sunset"

Who said the 13th was unlucky? I got two nice sunsets out of that day. The cold front went through as we sat and enjoyed the close of the day and the end of the warm sector. The southwesterly winds snapped around to the northwest with a gust of fresh Arctic air. Streets of pink turbulent stratoculumus soon followed.

Hang back shades of fibrous grey cloud persisted just as far as the mid level deformation zone associated with the departing low pressure area. It was going to clear and get much colder overnight. This was the second painting from 5:45 pm. I visited the same sunset #2213 "Pink Lines Sunset Singleton" at 5:40 pm on Sunday December 16th, 2018 and the sky looked very different from just five minutes earlier.

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#2204 "Orange Moment of Singleton Sunset"

It was 5:30 pm on Thursday November 8th, 2018 and the burst of orange lighting was only going to last a moment. The orange phase of the golden hour of sunset only lasts a few minutes at most. The trees were already casting a shadow on the forest wall along the marble ridge of Long Reach. There was a special energy in the sky and the forest that I tried to put into the oils. Everything had a rhythmic movement to it and I had to try to capture it.

This is the view from the porch overlooking the Laurentian forest to the east. An autumn rain storm and low pressure area had just shifted to the east of Singleton Lake after a day of rain. Using satellite meteorology terminology the fabled dry slot was upon us just in time for the sun to shine.

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#2203 "Langmuir Streak Sunset"

In the early days of my meteorological career I would have spotted this deck of cirrus and happily identified baroclinic zone cirrus (BZCI). Satellite imagery was just becoming available via hard copies on photographic paper - the fabled K560. Animation ws achieved by cartoon flipping the hard copies. VHS filming of the hard copies was the next step to make animations of the low resolution imargery. Computer handling of the data was still a dream in the 1980's. This new data in the late 1970's was enough to make me a convert to remote sensing though. Weather was three dimensional and did not arrive as the intersections of circles on Venn Diagrams.

Every line of cloud has a story to tell and I spent my career listening to what the skies had to say. Much of this research was published through COMET in Boulder, Colorado. Some other topics like langmuir streaks in the atmospheric fluid never made it to press even though I discussed the concepts many times. There is so much still to learn.

This sunset sky was from 6:50 pm Thursday September 6th, 2018. I had to paint it for both the colours but also the meteorology. I believe that the banding of the baroclinic zone cirrus results from the same process as Langmuir streaks in water. The tropropause provides the stable layer equivalent to the surface of the water. Distinct bands parallel to the strong winds in the fluid contained by the stable layer reveal the associated vertical motions therein.
I like to think of elongated helical tubes stretched out along the direction of the strong winds which comprise the jet stream. The three-dimensional circulation in these helical tubes interact and the bands of cloud result.

The deformation zone banding results from the other fluid process that I have built a meteorological career around. The warm conveyor belt flowing with the winds of the BZCI is revealed by the larger bands within the relative atmosphere perpedicular to the strong winds. Smaller wavelength bands are gavity waves within the stable layers of the atmosphere. Deformation zones tell a different story of heat and moisture and weather.

I painted the same sunset as it appeared a few minutes earlier in #2187 "Another Sunset Revolution". Sunset skies can change dramatically by the minute. I would paint this same sky again in #2206 "Dark Cherry Sunset" as it appeared about 15 minutes later. The tropical moisture from Hurricane Gordon was the star of these sunsets.

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