#2361 "Singleton Sunset Swirl"

The weather story was written in the sky. Weather was nearby but not at Singleton Lake. It was a beautiful and calm sunset and a perfect way to wind down the day. The deformation stretched across the southwestern horizon. 

In this case the cyclonic companion was aimed at us. There were some faint gravity waves in the bands of cirrostratus. The gravity waves were drifting toward the northwest and the thumb of my right hand was pointed upward when I aligned my fingers in the direction of cloud drift. The swirl in the clouds was a cyclonic twirl. 

Some wind in the western basin of Singleton stirred the water into ripples to distort the refection of the far shore. The rippled surface in the west basin reflected the blue sky except for one stretch of calm water which hung on to the dark shadows of the forested shore. The calm waters in the more protected eastern basin reflected the top of the forest from the western shore. The porch lights were coming on for the other residents of Singleton. 

The water levels had been drained down by the Gananoque Hydro Power Corporation so that all three Turtle Islands were exposed. The turtles were busy sunny themselves every day getting ready for the coming nesting season. 

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#2360 "Downstream from the Col"

These clouds had an interesting story to tell. I needed to archive those cursive scripts in oil. The title contains the meteorology as well.

I was painting the anticyclonic companion on the western horizon. Those clouds were stratiform or stable in nature. Gravity waves predominated with that stability. The undulations were oriented perpendicular to the atmosphere relative winds. The higher bands of cirrostratus were what initially caught my eye. Lower altostratus was on the western horizon with the thicker layers of warm conveyor belt moisture. Faint bands of higher cirrostratus were evident as well indicating the slope of the anticyclonic vorticity tube was upward and to the southeast.

Meanwhile a deck of altocumulus was directly overhead and the curl to those swirls had the thumb of my right hand pointing upward as it should for a vorticity maximum. The science of the conceptual model matched nicely with the clouds I was observing. Every time you locate a swirl, there is another and opposite swirl nearby.

The midday lighting had turned the waters of Singleton Lake into a mixture of ultramarine and cobalt blue. The forest on the western shore of Singleton were already dark.

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#2359 "Langmuir and Altocumulus"

Lines in the sky almost always seem to diverge to an observer on the ground. The truth is that they often do not spread apart at all. The optical illusion is a matter of perspective. Train tracks look like they diverge for the same reason. Crepuscular rays are a great example of this phenomenon. Langmuir-Streaks.html

The satellite view proves the point in this example of Langmuir streets that actually parallel the flow. Also note that the cumulus clouds only form in the areas absent of cirrus. The cirrus cloud was blocking that extra bit of heat energy required to get the cumulus thermals ascending and forming clouds.

The weather story was one of a large warm conveyor belt. Heavy rains would affect regions to the south. The cold low responsible for the weather pattern is typical of spring. This vertically stacked low was parked over Iowa. Rainfall was causing serious issues in the Appalachians.

Singleton Lake maybe got a drop or two of rain but that was all. Singleton was under the anticyclonic companion of the warm conveyor belt. It was dry. There were some classic gravity waves embedded in the Langmuir streaks. The patch of altocumulus overhead was an anomaly probably due to a minor relative wind maximum in the anticyclonic flow giving a small area of lift. Meteorologists refer to the larger of these wind maxima as jet streaks. The gentle ascent in the atmosphere that results creates a patch of egg-carton clouds neatly arranges by the physics of nature. The back edge can also be explained by the jet streak conceptual model.

The songs in the James Taylor play list all seemed to be about the sky and daydreaming. They were perfect for my frame of mind as I had fun capturing another sky in oils. Classic. Art should be both fun and creative.

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#2358 "Singleton Summer Cirrious Sunset"

In mid May a large cold low was spinning like a toy top over Tennessee. Inches of rain had been dropped over the Appalachians. It was a very serious storm to the south.

Singleton was under the anticyclonic companion of the warm conveyor belt. It was dry. Bands of cirrus criss-crossed the sunset sky. Those thin cirrus Langmuir streaks pointed toward the northeast. There were also some subtle gravity waves embedded in the Langmuir streaks that revealed the wind in the atmospheric frame of reference. Gravity waves are an important clue to unravel what was going on in the checkerboard sky. The cloud edges stretching perpendicular to the Langmuir streaks were deformation zones. This kind of sky would make me scratch my head but every line had a story to tell. The atmosphere always made sense but the job of the meteorologist was to discover what it was saying. In this case the sky was saying to relax and take another sip.

The songs in the James Taylor play list all seemed to be about the sky and daydreaming. They were perfect for my frame of mind as I had fun capturing another COVID Singleton sunset in oils. The lyrics all meant something to me and were true. For example "the sky is a blackboard" lyric can be found in "Teach Me Tonight".

"Starting with the A,B,C of it

Right down to the X,Y,Z of it

Help me solve the mystery of it

Teach me tonight"

I smiled as I painted. Life is good. For this and much more art, click on Pixels. Thank you.

#2357 "Mattawa Woodland Waterfall"

The Mattawa River is a river in central Ontario. It flows east from Trout Lake near North Bay and enters the Ottawa River at the town of Mattawa. It is only 76 km in length including the portion in Trout Lake. Seven modern, white water canoes were following the down-river path of the historical voyageurs in early June 2016. The spring rainfall had brought lots of water to make the rapids passable. The boulder fields at the low water outlet of the rapids did provide a few obstacles but we made it through just fine. Two hundred years ago there would have been much more traffic on this water highway. The Mattawa would have been one of a very few routes into the heart of the continent. We were virtually alone in 2016.

We spent Sunday night camped beside the river at Elm Point at the mouth of a mountain stream. My son and I explored up the slope behind the campsite to find the source of the very chilly water that fed the stream beside our tent. We were the only ones to go swimming. The water was beyond chilly - it was downright cold! It took a couple of thermos bottles of hot tea to raise the core temperatures of our bodies. Memories are made that way.

I wanted to play with the oils while enhancing the motion in the waterfall and the trees. It was a fun canvas although it lived on the easel for a month of COVID quarantining. In my first and only sold out gallery show in 1980, one reviewer commented that my work was too diverse. She did not know where I was going. Well that made two of us.

My continuing goal has simply been to learn and maybe get better at interpreting nature in oils. Spending quality time and solitude with the natural world was maybe why I paddled, fished and brushed. Nothing has really changed since those first days in 1967 painting with my friend and mentor Mario Airomi in his Maitland Studio. How I wish I could paint again with Mario!
The artistic journey must take many twists and turns and I still do not know where it is going. The journey is the fun part and it would be a shame to try to contain that trip within any confines of expectations.

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#2356 "Singleton After the Cold Frontal Rain"

The April cold front of #2355 "Cold Frontal Rain Sunrise" had passed by. It had rained steadily all afternoon. It was a cool, overcast rain - the kind of day when it felt really good to just stay home with the wood stove crackling away. The westerly winds created Langmuir streets in the surface of the lake. White caps came and went with the stronger wind gusts. If you use your right hand, you can see that those curls and swirls in the cloud heads were all strongly anticyclonic with your thumb pointing down.

The stratocumulus streets were in the process of shifting from the southwest to the northwest in orientation. The rain had just ended when I locked in this scene in my mind. The skies would clear in a few hours and the stars would shine once again. We value the darkness in the Singleton Sanctuary.

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#2355 "Cold Frontal Rain Sunrise"

A cold front was on the way. The deformation zone on the eastern horizon told the weather story. A vorticity minimum chain of deformation zones typically precedes the cloud with a cold frontal boundary. This was the best part of the day which would soon turn into a cool, overcast rain - the kind of day when it felt really good to just stay home with the wood stove crackling away. The actual sun was burning a hole through the Long Reach forest. It would crest above the trees in another ten minutes.

The thin deformation zone chain preceding
the axis of maximum winds is
what I painted in the sunrise sky.

The leading edge of the precipitation is shaped by
the vorticity minimum chain.
The trailing edge is shaped by
the vorticity maximum chain.

The altocumulus were stretched from south to north with the lift being provided by the cold front. The rain and weather preceded the actual front which is characteristic of a katabatic cold front. With an anabatic front the weather occurs at and behind the actual surface change in air masses.

This level of meteorological detail seldom gets into the forecast. Swirls in the atmosphere shape the weather.

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#2354 "April Cumulus Flurries"

The cold and unstable air mass was still producing very vigourous snow flurries. This convective sky was full of shapes. The cloud had some real structure to it. The brisk westerly winds at the surface produced pronounced Langmuir streets in the water. Friction in the boundary layer veered these surface winds more to the northwest at the higher level of the cumulus clouds. Meteorologists refer to this as the Ekman Spiral.

Ekman Spiral showing winds typically veer about 45 degrees
with height due to friction in the boundary layer

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#2353 "Singleton Heavy April Snow Flurries"

The cold and unstable air mass was producing very vigourous snow flurries. The snow even accumulated at least 2 centimetres. There was a large towering cumulus to the west which provided the backdrop to this convective sky. The cloud had some real structure to it that made me think of a severe thunderstorm.

The cumulus was backlit by the sun that was getting low over the western horizon. Clouds that are illuminated from the back are darker in their centres than at their edges. If the piece of cloud is especially thin and fragmented the entire cloud might appear relatively bright. Close examination of those clouds will indicate they are still a bit darker where the cloud is the most optically thick. Shafts of snow were falling from the larger towering cumulus further to the west. I had planned on barbecuing outside as a tribute to the approaching warmer weather but had decided against it with the snow on the ground.

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#2352 "Singleton Snow SCUD"

The cold and unstable air mass was producing very vigourous snow flurries. The snow even accumulated at least 2 centimetres. There was a large towering cumulus to the west which provided the backdrop to this convective sky. The scattered cumulus under deck is commonly called SCUD cloud by meteorologists. The deck is the lifted condensation level of the particular air mass. Any cloud that forms beneath that level must do so by using moisture provided by the precipitation that has already fallen.

SCUD forms beneath the
Lifted Condensation Level of the Air Mass

This SCUD cloud was backlit by the sun that was getting low over the western horizon. Clouds that are illuminated from the back are darker in their centres than at their edges. If the piece of cloud is especially thin and fragmented the entire cloud might appear relatively bright. Close examination of those clouds will indicate they are still a bit darker where the cloud is the most optically thick. Shafts of snow were falling from the larger towering cumulus further to the west. I had planned on barbecuing outside as a tribute to the approaching warmer weather but had decided against it with the snow on the ground.

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