#2216 "Singleton Winter Contrails Cirrus and Deformation"

Every line in the sky has a history to reveal that tells the future as well. The cirrostratus level deformation zone leading the way for the warm conveyor belt was already well to the east of Singleton. Several jets were also on their way to a new day in Europe. A winter storm was on the way for Friday across eastern Ontario and Singleton Lake. The skyscape on Thursday January 17th, 2019 at 5 pm revealed all of the meteorological processes and much more. I knew this was going to be my next painting.

The falling snow from the winter storm was enough to keep me in the studio where I recorded this tale of moisture and weather then next day. My paintings come to me. No need to go looking for inspiration. The cirrus on the warm conveyor belt was being divided into bands paralleling the upper winds by a process I feel is identical to that for Langmuir Streaks on water surfaces. There were also subtle gravity waves embedded in the cirrus layers revealing winds from another direction in the storm relative flow. Seven jets were laying down their contrails as they streaked to tomorrow in Europe. The contrails were persistent in the moist air mass. We used to forecast the probability of persistent contrails for 22 NORAD but I suspect we did that poorly even though we had supporting nomograms and some upper air soundings. The contrails splayed out in time. The helical patterns reminded me of the structure of DNA.

The dominant line in the sky was the mid level deformation zone leading the way for the approaching precipitation. It was the major star of the composition and stretched across the horizon. I made my meteorological career out of learning what these lines were all about. The upper vorticity maxmium and the heaviest precipitation were further to the north and to the left of the col in the deformation field.

The colours of the sky also played out on the surface of Singleton Lake. The snow, ice and open water all behaved differently to the light show above.

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