#2581 "Singleton Snow Virga November Sunset"

#2581 "Singleton Snow Virga November Sunset"
11x14 oils

This is another November sunset. I try to never miss a sunset. The snow was wafting down from the thinnest of convective cloud elements. 

These cumuliform clouds were all that remained of the vigourous squalls off Georgian Bay. The cold front had passed through earlier in the day. The streets of turbulent stratocumulus that originated in the northwesterly flow over the open waters of Georgian Bay also benefited from the additional daytime heating over the still dark ground surfaces. The added bit of instability from the sun supplemented the energy and moisture gained by the air parcels as they passed over the open, warm waters of the Great Lakes. These clouds and the snow flurries would fizzle with the setting sun. 

Water radar at the time of the painting

The setting of the sun continues to march southward along the western shore of Singleton. The progression of the seasons between the winter and summer solstices, can be witnessed by the location that the golden orb sinks below the western horizon. The sunsets are always spectacular and not to be missed. 

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#2580 "Sunset Singleton Stratocumulus on Fire"

#2580 "Sunset Singleton Stratocumulus on Fire"
5x7 oils

I wanted to have some fun with thick oils on a slippery and very smooth panel. I had already done a larger version of this particular sunset scene in #2578 "Ribbon of Brightness". 

Watertown Radar Image

This time I wanted to focus solely on the lower right of that sunset sky while the memory of the sunset at its colourful peak still burnt in my brain. 

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#2579 "Behind the November Cold Front"

#2579 "Behind the November Cold Front" 11x14

Every sunset is a gift. The sky is different each time the sun sinks below the western horizon. 

The cold front had shifted to the south of Singleton. The clouds overhead were riding the wedge of Arctic air. Gravity waves in the bottoms of those clouds, revealed the wind direction. These gravity waves were perpendicular to the winds in the atmospheric frame of reference. Meanwhile, turbulent stratocumulus cloud streets were developing parallel to the northwesterly winds behind the cold front. Those long streets of cumulus are created by the same processes that Irving Langmuir used to describe windrows of seaweed in the Sargasso Sea back in 1927. The only difference was that this sunset was at the bottom of the atmospheric ocean of air. 

The winds at cloud level were definitely northwesterly while those at the ground were straight out of the west. Ekman turning of the wind as a result of surface friction is an important topic on almost the very first day of Meteorology 101. 

The porch light was on for my neighbour across the lake.  

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#2578 "Ribbon of Brightness"

#2578 "Ribbon of Brightness"
11x14 November 2021

We try to enjoy every sunset and each is unique. 

It was Gordon Lightfoot's birthday and we were reminiscing about the number of times that we had seen Gordon perform at Massey Hall in Toronto. Lightfoot's birthday is November 17th. We saw him turn 50 years old on that Massey Hall Stage... and numerous other times. We were there to watch the last series of concerts when they were closing Massey Hall for renovations in June 2018. The ceiling at Massey Hall was covered in chicken wire for the past several decades, due to crumbling plaster. To call Lightfoot a national icon would be an understatement. 

This time we were enjoying the sunset at Singleton instead. Massey Hall would remain closed until November 25th, 2021 when Gordon would perform there again. The cost of tickets and everything else during COVID was out of sight so we stayed in quarantine at the lake.  The simple pleasures of life were not in COVID lockdown. 

Just a very few images from
the Top 10 Canadian Weather 
Events of 2021

It is vital to see the positive. There is so much darkness in the world that it is best not to dwell on the negative. Watch the news, the power panel of paid, partisan, political pundits and talking heads for just a few minutes of dribble and that will be more than enough. Nature will enforce the laws of physics in the end. Heat waves, forest fires, atmospheric rivers and other calamities with an incalculable return period, are happening annually. Weather is indeed re-writing the climate on a short time scale that was previously considered to be impossible. 

Mother Nature is doing her best to bring balance back to the planet inspite of humankind's efforts to confound her. Life is all about balance isn't it. The weather tries to keep the earth on an even keel and that requires much more drastic measures these days. 

Water Vapour View
Rain has just moved to the east with
clearing to the west

The brilliant sunset light emerging from under the thick overcast was my simple message in this painting. The torrential rain storm had passed to the east. Family, nature and the ever changing light from the sky, brighten my world and the Singleton Sanctuary. That is the message that I needed to record in these oils. I made this memory as I watched the sunset and the ribbon of brightness over me was all that I really needed.  

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#2577 "Singleton November Rain Squall"

#2577 "Singleton November Rain Squall"
11x14 oils Nov 16, 2021

There was a heavy rain squall just west of Singleton. The cloud structure was very interesting and I needed to record it in oils. The rain was falling with the momentum provided by the northwesterly winds. The boundary layer of the atmosphere was quite unstable. The energy in these convective cells is actually quite incredible and is what I wished to capture in the oils. The weather is always inspirational. 

The energy in the atmosphere is increasing with the rising global temperatures. It is not just the heat but also the increasing amount of moisture in the atmosphere that provides the energetics for these cells and much more. The change of state of this atmospheric water adds to the weather energy budget. This atmospheric energy budget is going into a huge surplus.

I worked on a module for COMET around 2009 that described the details of "atmospheric rivers". That term has entered the public lexicon as a result of recent weather events around the globe but most notably in British Columbia. The November flooding in British Columbia was the number two weather event of Canada's top 10 weather stories in 2021 and those stories made "atmospheric rivers" a household term. That story of floods and devastation was only surpassed by "Record heat under the Dome" when British Columbia baked and set new heat records during the summer. These top two stories were followed by Number 3 "Canada dry coast to coast" and Number 4 "Wildfire season – early, active and unrelenting". Sadly, the climate is changing and it is because of the actions of mankind.

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Life is good...

#2576 "Singleton Sunrise with a Storm on the Western Horizon"

#2576 "Singleton Sunrise with a Storm on the Western Horizon"
11x14

The arcs of cloud on the western sunrise horizon spoke of the warm conveyor belt of weather that was approaching from the southwest. The large individual bands were actually swells embedded in the flow behind the deformation zone. The energy for these long wavelength swells originated with the stronger winds of the jet stream much further to the southwest. There were some subtle embedded wind waves within the swells as well. A jet was inbound to Pearon International leaving a contrail in its wake. 

Mid Level Water Vapour Satellite Imagery

It is important to view all gravity waves from the atmospheric perspective. The slant on these wind waves is actually toward the east when viewed from satellite imagery. The anticyclonic companion was approaching Singleton as is customary given the location of eastern Ontario relative to the Gulf of Mexico. Our earth bound vantage can be challenging and one must always keep an open mind ready for new evidence and facts. 

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#2575 "Cumulus Congestus November Sunset"

#2575 "Cumulus Congestus November Sunset"
11x14 oils

Rainsqualls in autumn develop when cold Arctic air flows over the warm waters of the Great Lakes. Frictional shoreline convergence, fetch, and instability aloft all play important roles just as they due in the creation of snowsqualls. 

During the afternoon after daytime heating from the sun has created additional instability over the land, these squalls penetrate much further inland. The squalls from Georgian Bay and Lake Huron typically reach eastern Ontario and even western Quebec during the peak of the afternoon instability. Such was the case after the cold frontal passage of the Halloween weekend. 

The precipitation virga from these cumulus congestus cells certainly started their journey as snowflakes… most melt but some did not. Only a few reached the ground for me to observe. Snow flakes fall at 1 metre per second as a good estimate. Rain drops fall much faster. The transition from a dense conglomeration of snowflakes falling slowing into a much less dense volume of faster rain drops is typically obvious in those trails of virga wafting from the cloud base. The trails of snow essentially disappear into rain drops. With the definition of virga, non of those rain drops are supposed to reach the ground and thus be observable. If "rain" does indeed reach the ground, technically it is a rain shower. 

A clerk at the grocery store when I went for COVID curbside pick up of our bi-weekly groceries described one of the showers as a mix of hail, freezing rain and snow accompanied by really strong and gusty winds. The convection turbulence with a heavier squall, compacts the snow flakes into ice crystals type B which can hurt like hail when they hit you. There is nil chance of freezing rain but the melting ice pellets, strong convective winds and cold rain shower would make conditions miserable after enjoying a long and hit summer. I parked under the grocery store carport so we would not experience those weather conditions. 

Radar often looks overtop of the relatively shallow convection. The radar will typically only see the pieces of the squalls which are closest to the radar site. Satellite imagery is required to connect the disjointed radar observations, often revealing the linkages that connect the pieces across all of the Great Lakes. Squalls are relatively easy to forecast far in advance. The forecast relies on airmass and lake temperatures as well as wind direction and speed. The geography of the Great Lakes basin is one of the most important predictors of where the impacts will be experienced and these characteristics do not change. One can comfortably predict a squall situation a week ahead of time... 

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#2574 "Singleton Rainsquall Sunset"

#2574 "Singleton Rainsquall Sunset" 11x14 oil

Rainsqualls in autumn develop when cold Arctic air flows over the Great Lakes, still warm from the summer. Frictional shoreline convergence, fetch, and instability all play important roles just as they do in the creation of snowsqualls. 

Visible Satellite Image of these Squalls

These squalls penetrate much further inland during the afternoon after daytime heating from the sun has created additional instability over the land, . The squalls from Georgian Bay and Lake Huron typically reach eastern Ontario and even into western Quebec during the peak of the afternoon instability. Such was the case after the cold frontal passage of the Halloween weekend. 

The precipitation virga from these cumulus congestus clouds certainly started their journey as snowflakes… most melted but some did not. Only a few snow flakes reached the ground for me to observe. As a good estimate, snow flakes fall at 1 metre per second. Rain drops fall much faster - about ten times as fast, more or less. The transition from a dense conglomeration of snowflakes falling slowing into a much less dense volume of faster rain drops is typically obvious in those trails of virga wafting from the cloud base. The trails of snow essentially disappear into rain drops. With the definition of virga, non of those rain drops are supposed to reach the ground and thus be observable. If "rain" does indeed reach the ground, technically it is a rain shower. 

Nighttime Microphysics RGB Satellite Image
Multi channel imagery allows meteorologists to
better understand the atmospheric processes

A clerk at the grocery store when I went for COVID curbside pick up of our bi-weekly groceries, described one of the showers as an intense mix of hail, freezing rain and snow accompanied by really strong and gusty winds. The convection turbulence with a heavier squall, compacts the snow flakes into ice crystals type B which can hurt just like hail when they hit you. There is nil chance of freezing rain but the melting ice pellets, strong convective winds and cold rain shower would make conditions miserable after enjoying a long and hot summer. I parked under the grocery store carport so we would not experience those weather conditions. 

Radar at the Time of the Painting

Radar often looks overtop of this relatively shallow convection. The radar will typically only see the pieces of the squalls which are closest to the radar site. Satellite imagery is required to connect the disjointed radar observations, often revealing the linkages that connect the pieces across all of the Great Lakes. Squalls are relatively easy to forecast far in advance. The forecast relies on airmass and lake temperatures as well as wind direction and speed. The geography of the Great Lakes basin is one of the most important predictors of where the impacts will be experienced and these characteristics do not change. One can comfortably predict a squall situation a week ahead of time... note the Langmuir streaks too. 

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#2573 "Halloween Sunset on Fire"

#2573 "Halloween Sunset on Fire" 11x14

The sunset sky was on fire. The light also lit up the Singleton forest. I had to record the sky in oils but I ran out of light. The memory was my first assignment in the Singleton Studio the following morning. 

Water Vapour Satellite View of the Singleton Sunset

One cold front had already crossed Singleton Lake and the winds had shifted around to the west. Turbulent stratocumulus cloud filled the sunset sky. Langmuir streaks stretched across the surface of the lake. The downward, calm portions of the Langmuir circulations were the mirrors that reflected the sunset. The rippled, upward returns that completed the fluid circulations, were rippled and darker with the colours of the overhead clouds. The golden rays of the setting sun set it all ablaze. There were many subtle colour variations in the clouds and I wished to do justice to them all. There was no real need to understand all of the physics in order to appreciate the understated beauty of nature - although I try to do both. The trick is to be grateful for the treat. 

Irving Langmuir was an American chemist and physicist
who won the 1932 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
for his work in surface chemistry. Irving was
naturally curious.

This cold front marked the beginning of a chilly but drier week at Singleton. 

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#2572 "Rainy Day Sunflower"

I had wanted to record this aging sunflower plant en plein air but I was just too tired. Art is work and I did not feel like I had the energy to do that flower justice. I knew the next day would be very wet so I took some pictures on Friday afternoon October 29th, 2021 and prepared to paint in the Singleton Studio the following day. That decision also gave me the title for what I would later paint. 

This was a smooth and slippery surface with zero tooth. I had lots of paint on my palette so I concentrated on just mixing the right colour and laying it on the panel in the right place. Sounds simple... 

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#2571 "Singleton Sundog Sunset"

#2571 "Singleton Sundog Sunset" 11x14

This is another sunset that caught my eye. The setting sun was almost hidden by the lower deck of dark altocumulus. The sun had already set enough that the direct rays could not reach down to that level. The sun was able to illuminate the ice crystals of the higher cirrus though. The resulting 45 degree sun dog was a rainbow of colours not quite hidden by the deck of lower altocumulus. The cloud deck got progressively thicker toward the southwest. 

There were gravity waves galore in the multiple layers of cloud and this was the main attraction for recording this sunset in oils. I watched the drift on these clouds and it was all going slowly toward the southeast. 

Using my Coriolis Hand confirmed that the anticyclonic companion would be the first portion of the approaching storm to reach Singleton. This is typical for eastern Ontario given the orientation of most weather systems emerging from the American south and Midwest. The gravity waves with the altocumulus were predominantly associated with the advection, southwesterly winds making these "wind waves". The higher level cirrus gravity waves were composed of both swells originating from the stronger upper winds well to the southwest and wind waves associated with the anticyclonic flow of the large companion swirl. 

The gravity waves on the surface of Singleton Lake were associated with the easterly cold conveyor belt being drawn into the weather system. The storm was either moving very slowly or was stronger than average in intensity. As it turned out, it rained hard starting overnight and lasting most of Saturday. 

All of these features actually do fit neatly together into an apt description of the weather situation. I have explained the analysis and diagnosis techniques to arrive at this conclusion many times.

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