#0746 "Sunrise Strato CU"

This is looking westward from just north of the Watershed Farmhouse starting at 7:30 am on a late summer morning. The field of stratocumulus cloud was drifting slowly southeastward. Once again the geese entertained me by flying out of the wetland and directly overhead. The young geese were learning how to really fly. They were really excited about the morning and the coming migration. There was a "whole lot of honkin' goin' on"!

The cloud colours were what interested me as well as the nearly uniform elevation of the stratocumulus bases that result from the turbulent mixing of the surface moisture. The surface winds were virtually calm while the winds at the top of the boundary layer were certainly northwesterly. The winds backed to the southwester in the mid levels and higher and were quite strong gauging from the spacing of the gravity waves.

The approaching warm frontal surface produced elevated altocumulus castellanus. Light showers that weren't in the forecast occurred before noon in Hammertown. A thin veil of cirrostratus approaching from the southwest became thicker during the painting clinching the warm frontal diagnosis of the weather situation. The clues to the weather are always written in the sky if you know the vocabulary. This was the classic conveyor belt conceptual model.

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