#2527 "Western Horizon Sunset Cumulonimbus"

The top of the thunderstorm was still catching the sunset light. The light was also reflected on the fairly calm waters of Singleton Lake. The cumulonimbus was much further away that one might think. It was probably near Kaladar and north of Napanee. 

That cell was caught up in one of the deformation swirls around the cold cold low. The storm was actually tracking southward. The instability with the cold low was on its way east of Singleton Lake. 

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#2526 "White Christmas on Palestine Island"

The title of this painting is cryptic. 

Irving Berlin vacationed at the white cottage on the southern point of Palestine Island in Georgian Bay. Irving probably wrote songs there as well. My friend Cam was out looking for flagged trees for me to paint. These heavily, blown over pines were on the small, rocky island just southwest of Palestine Island. I thought there was a linkage between the beautiful song White Christmas, the Christmas season, Christianity, Jesus, Palestine and the Holy Land and of course, ancient trees that thrive even in the harshest environment and strongest winds. 

These wind blown trees are still standing and their age is probably much greater than we might expect. The water lines etched on the glacial rocks bely the up and downs of history and the water level of the Great Lakes. 

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#2515 "Cirrus Sky Script"

This painting was actually started at 11 am on Wednesday February 12th, 2020 with #2326 "Cirrus Lines".

 The process continued on Friday February 28th, 2020 with #2336 "Cursive Writing in the Sky". I liked the subject matter and what it had to say about the weather so I thought I would revisit it a final time on a very large and rather expensive canvas. 

Weather is more of a ballet than a battle. Nature and the sciences that govern the globe can be predictable in a beautiful way. 

As I was laying in the design, my mind wandered further to the art of calligraphy. Calligraphy is more than ‘beautiful handwriting’ or ‘ornate lettering techniques.’ The meteorological ballet of weather is very similar in that the flowing elements of the clouds and vapours are harmoniously arranged through nature and science, revealing the rhythm of the atmosphere. The official definition says that "calligraphy is the art of forming beautiful symbols by hand and arranging them well." This statement is equally applicable to the sky and the meteorology that governs how the elements are arranged. I have been deciphering these interactions and arrangements during my entire meteorological career. My science Blog summarizes the best of those patterns and they can be easily deciphered using your Coriolis Hand and following the scripts that I have written for the major weather patterns. 

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#2525 "Morning Altocumulus Castellanus"

The clouds in the morning sky revealed the weather story. The convective altocumulus castellanus were sheared with the southwesterly winds. The gravity waves embedded in the stable layer of the warm frontal surface also revealed the southwesterly winds of the warm conveyor belt. The mixing layer of the warm front occupied a depth of a thousand feet or more. The gravity waves are darkest where the cloud is thickest about that particular line so they actually correspond to where there is an updraft in the wave. The lighter portion of the clouds are when the air is descending within that wave and there is less cloud above to block the light. A simple graphic would explain this better. 

The cirrostratus that blanketed the highest levels of the warm conveyor belt, provided a bright white backdrop to the story-telling clouds. "Cirrostratus coming at us" was the name of this short story and rain was on the way. I tried to get the meteorology accurate in those oils without ignoring the artistry and natural composition of the weather and nature. We only received about 16 mm of rain from the event that followed with most of the liquid passing to our north. Ottawa observed around 35 mm of rainfall. 

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#2524 "Singleton Isolated Shower"

This is the classic definition of an isolated shower. One lone shower produced heavy rain as it tracked southeastward. The heavy rain barely touched the western shore of Singleton Lake. You could count the rain drops that reached our Singleton Sanctuary on the eastern bay of the lake. This is the kind of shower that frustrates farmers if they want to harvest their hay crops... or want some rain for their sprouting corn. Either way, an isolated heavy deluge like this has the potential to either rain on or make someone's plans. 

The meteorology required to correctly predict the location of this isolated but very heavy rain shower is complex. It involves starting at the large scale of the water vapour imagery and drilling downward in time and space to the forces that influence the local scale. The water vapour imagery revealed several short-waves (use your Coriolis right hand to understand them). These pulses of energy were arranged in a double cyclonic vorticity (maximum) chain. The patterns are really quite beautiful. Daytime heating over the land and lake breezes get into the small scale, local processes. These forces nest together and presto, a heavy and very isolated rain shower is born. I was surprised to see it in the chilly northwesterly flow following the cold front of the previous sunset. 

The towering cumulus still displayed some remarkable structure. The isolated cloud was rotating probably because of the wind shear along the lake breeze front. The convective cell produced heavy precipitation and strong winds as well. It was a remarkable cloud in an unexpected location behind the cold front. It deserved to be preserved in oils. I try to enjoy every sunset. 

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#2523 "Summer Solstice Sunset 2021"

The cold front was just crossing Singleton Lake at sunset. The cold front was the standard veering wind shift accompanied by a drop in temperature and humidity. The thunderstorms did not develop as the severe weather watches expected. Weather can be like that even for the very best. The upper jet exit region was further to the southeast and the line of thunderstorms axis had already passed well to the east of Singleton with the upper support. A supercellular thunderstorm did indeed develop and there was a tornado casualty northeast of Montreal - the first in Canada form many years. 

There was also a tropical storm within the computational grid of the numerical model that simulates the atmosphere. The energy and moisture associated with tropical storms typically influence the numerical calculations - and not in an good way... 

I was interested in the cloud structures. The gravity waves in the shreds of cumulus riding the wedge of cold air, were perpendicular to the southwesterly winds that had howled all day. Meanwhile the streets of stratocumulus in the cold air were aligning with the northwesterly winds. The lake surfaces in the lee of the forest were turning to a reflective calm after a day of huge brown waves and white caps. Those calm surfaces reflected the bright sky. 

It was also the longest day of the year - summer solstice. The sun would rise was at 5:18 am and not set until 20:52 pm yielding 15 hours and 34 minutes of daylight, more or less. 

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#2522 "Singleton Sheared Sunset Anvil"

It was a beautiful rainy day and plein air was not going to be practical. I remembered this supercell from 5:45 pm August 31st, 2014 and I wanted to have another go at it on a bit larger canvas. Every day is different as it should be. The turtles were starting to nest right on time according to our annual records. Protecting turtle nests can get to be a full time occupation. Life gets busy. 

The sky and weather are always inspirational.

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