#2091 "Sunday Sunrise Cumulus Floccus"

There was an easterly breeze not due to an approaching low pressure area but because of an outflow from a large high pressure area to the north. The associated large low pressure area was being deflected well to the south of Singleton as it moved toward the coast. It did not rain at the lake at all on Sunday.

I quite enjoy the sunrise light and these floccus clouds were an added bonus. Floccus are small cumulus looking clouds appearing as a fibrous tuft. The bottoms of floccus are quite ragged and often accompanied by virga. The bases of these clouds are certainly not uniform. The text book says that floccus can only be applied to cirrus, cirrocumulus, altocumulus and stratocumulus. These clouds were not in a large enough sheet to make me think of stratocumulus so I simply called them cumulus floccus which really could be an unnecessary duplication of the term like calling them cumulus cumulus. Floccus are typically 1000 to 3000 feet tall although I find it challenging to really estimate these cloud dimensions from the ground. Some tufts have been recorded to 10000 feet tall turning them into altocumulus castellannus.

A look at the radar from the same time revealed that some of the floccus virga was actually being observed. Art gives me a chance to learn more science. They really are the same thing.