#2332 "Contrail Ribbons"

This is the first in the 2020 series of Singleton skies. The jet traffic headed to Europe was especially heavy but I guess that was to be expected for a Saturday. The contrails had fanned out because of turbulence. They had initially formed in a flat plane (so to speak) that was then twisted like a ribbon. Using my left-hand instead of applying the much more typical right-hand rule, with my thumb pointing in the direction of the jet, my fingers described the sense that these ribbons of contrails appeared to twist. I do not recall ever observing this ribbon twisting of contrails before. I had to record the memory in oils.

There was quite a lot of cirrus that had already passed over and east of Singleton during the day in the wake of the leading edge of the highest level deformation zone. Thin cirrostratus blanketed the skies overhead. The upper atmosphere was indeed moist and already very prepared to make these long-lasting and persistent contrails. The well-developed and layered warm conveyor belt of the next winter storm was on the western horizon with altostratus and nimbostratus as well. The ice was still thick on Singleton Lake. I was still using the old paints from the Parry Sound series and that provided a lot of texture to the surface of the painting.

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