#2663 "Singleton Calm After the Storm"

#2663 "Singleton Calm After the Storm"
16x20 oils

The radar bow line of severe thunderstorms passed through Singleton Lake just after 3:30 pm on Saturday May 21st, 2022. Memories from that afternoon will linger for decades just like the aftermath of May 31st, 1985. At least ten people died with this storm almost equalling the twelve people who were killed during the Barrie Tornado outbreak. Many people will also remember the nights of July 13th and July 15th, 1995. Severe weather can be like that with memories lasting generations like Hazel from 1954. La Niña is part of a larger weather phenomenon known as El Niño Southern Oscillation and 1985, 1995 and 2022 were all La Niña years - not just coincidental. As a meteorologist, you want to work those storms and predict them to the best of your ability - to make a positive difference. Weather is important...

Watertown radar before the progressive
derecho reached Singleton Lake

The thunderstorms were cold frontal in nature. The squall line was moving at 80 km/h which was a very clear indication of severe convection producing widespread damage. We did not have any obvious damage but reports of widespread power outages soon came across social media. Trees, hydro poles, roofing shingles, flipped cars and goodness knows what else, went with the wind. Large trees were downed in the Singleton forest. 

Typically a progressive derecho relies on the high buoyant energy of a mesoscale convective system and a quasistationary west to east frontal system. The simpler definition calls a derecho "a line of intense, widespread, and fast-moving windstorms and sometimes thunderstorms that moves across a great distance and is characterized by damaging winds." Using this simpler definition, the squall line of Saturday May 21st, 2022 certainly qualifies to be called a derecho - Spanish for "straight ahead". The event was not the classic progressive or serial derecho that I have been used to during my meteorological career. In this case, I feel that the progressive derecho used the Lake Erie and Lake Ontario lake breeze fronts just like a derecho would employ a quasistationary baroclinic zone. Meteorology is always fascinating. 

Media Coverage was extensive after the May Long Weekend Event

"When Canadian tornado expert David Sills studied the forecast on Saturday morning, he never expected the line of storms headed for Windsor, Ont., would soon strengthen into Canada's first derecho in decades, wreaking havoc across southern Ontario and Quebec." My friend and co-worker David would also be quoted as saying "There wasn't much in the way of any indication in the models of this big derecho coming through," he said. "The computer models we rely on to give us a heads up for these types of events, they've got a long way to go." CBC News · Posted: May 25, 2022. 

I always felt and advocated that a inquisitive meteorologist had an important if not vital role to play in weather prediction - human 3D and 4D pattern recognition skills while leaving no satellite or radar image unturned until the atmospheric puzzle is solved. Computers and numerical models of the atmosphere are essential tools but apparently not always the solution. 

This is the peaceful sunset following that line of convection. Everything was calm and one would be hard pressed to think that anything severe had just happened. 

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#2662 "Nightjar Singleton Sunset"

#2662 "Nightjar Singleton Sunset"
10x12 oils panel

There were at least a dozen night hawks feeding in the Singleton sunset sky. Night hawks are members of the nightjar family which helps to explain the title. They are described as being medium-sized nocturnal or crepuscular birds in the family Caprimulgidae and order Caprimulgiformes, characterised by long wings, short legs, and very short bills. Being insect eaters, these birds are very susceptible to pesticides. Common nighthawks breed in North America but migrate in the fall up to 10,000 kilometres south to the Amazon and Cerrado biomes of South America. The birds make numerous stops along their journey. As a result, pesticides and loss of habitat anywhere along this very long migration is an important factor in their survival. 

The common nighthawk is one of the most widely distributed birds in the Western Hemisphere, but also one of the most poorly understood due to its nocturnal nature. It is not a hawk but a member of the "nightjar" family which is a group of nocturnal birds that "hawk" to catch and eat flying insects. It is well disguised during the day by plumage that camouflages with the ground or tree branch it roosts on. At dusk, it uses long wings, huge eyes and a giant mouth to pursue and capture its prey. I built shelters to try to encourage these birds to nest at Singleton. I was also inspired to paint #2519 "Nighthawk Sunset" because of the night hawks. 

The weather is this sunset sky is also very important. It is a warm conveyor belt marked by multiple parallel Langmuir streaks. Some gravity waves embedded within the Langmuir streaks confirm the southwesterly winds in the free atmosphere. A jet probably on its was to Europe, was enjoying a fuel saving tail wind. 

This is just another sunset sky but I did not need to travel anywhere to enjoy it. There was a definite purple hue to the sky low on the horizon. The weather is always interesting. It was snowing in Boulder Colorado while I was enjoying this sunset. 

The very smooth and slippery surface was fun. For this and much more art, click on Pixels. Thank you.

#2661 "Subtle Soft Sunrise Cumulus"

#2661 "Subtle Soft Sunrise Cumulus"
5x7 inches oil

The warm frontal surface was aloft over Singleton Lake as the morning sun rose in the east. The cool conveyor belt of easterly breezes was being drawn into the low pressure system well to the west. There was not much cloud in the sky but it was mostly convective in nature. Subtle gravity waves in the warm conveyor belt aloft were only evident in varying shades of blue as the cirrostratus was not thick enough to be opaque. The couple of bands of altostratus gravity waves sprouted cauliflower, cumulus turrets and even a bit of subtle virga. The sky is always interesting even if the weather clues are subtle. 

There are many, many ways to look at the weather - beside
using oils, brushes and canvas... 

I employed a small panel to record these observations. Sometimes small is best and less is more. 

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#2660 "May Sky in the Wake"

#2660 "May Sky in the Wake" 16x20 inches oils 

We received 20 mm of rain with the spring storm that was foretold by #2659 "Langmuir Cirrus Meets Mr DZ". The continuous rain had since moved to the east and the streets of turbulent stratocumulus in the gusty northwesterly winds had arrived. I was intrigued by the cloud shapes and colours. Those clouds needed to be recorded in oils. There was even some green mixed in with the greys and the blues of those clouds. The horizon held the promise of clearing skies with patches of white and blue. 

WV High Level - WV Mid Level - Watertown Radar View - Surface Observations

The surface of the lake responded with waves. The classic bright line on the western shore of Singleton spoke of waves reflecting the light of the clearing well to the west... and your eye is also observing a larger area of that reflective surface. 

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#2659 "Langmuir Cirrus Meets Mr DZ"

#2659 "Langmuir Cirrus Meets Mr DZ"
8x10 oils stretched canvas

It was a beautiful day and I was watching the cirrus from the approaching spring system get ever nearer. 

Satellite Water Vapour View

The sky was a textbook on atmospheric circulations so I thought I would record it in oils. The cirrus of the warm conveyor belt was divided into Langmuir streaks of cloud. The leading edge of each band of cirrus spread out laterally when it reached the deformation zone - that three dimensional skin that enclosed the approaching warm and moist air mass. Each plume of moisture spread outward from its neighbour. The cirrus was at progressively lower levels in the atmosphere further toward the west. 

A jet on its way to Europe left a contrail within the moisture of the warm conveyor belt. That contrail evapourated rapidly in the drier air east of the deformation zone - not included in the painting. I noticed that the contrail drifted southward while I painted. This motion confirmed that as is typical for our location in eastern Ontario, the anticyclonic companion of the deformation zone was arriving at the lake first. 

There were Langmuir streaks in the surface of the lake as well with the light southwesterly breeze. I decided to include those as well. I paint what I see - everything interests me. 

There were no biting bugs and my 45 minutes spend on the front ridge were most enjoyable. The sun was warm on my back and the birds were singing to mark their territories. The bull frogs joined in with their chorus as well. 

The rain was due to arrive overnight and it did, just as the clouds in the sky foretold. We received 20 mm of rain with the spring storm. 

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#2658 "October Narrows 2021"

#2658 "October Narrows 2021"
7.75 x 7.75 by 1/4 inch oils on panel

The Narrows is an iconic hamlet of Red Horse Lake and a suburb of Lyndhurst, Ontario. I wanted to do another painting of the the tiny village on a small and slippery surface. I placed a red canoe at Bill's dock. The narrow channel leading into the larger basin of Red Horse Lake is hidden between the rocks on the right side of the panel. 

Bird's eye view of the Narrows and the
view looking northeast from 2658

On Long Point it's known as Rice's Narrows, and the adjacent granite knob to the north is "Rice's Mountain", after Joel and Melinda Rice who were the first settlers there. In Lyndhurst it's called Weeks's Narrows after Harvey and George Weeks who farmed there later. When our local historian (Art) was a kid, he prided myself in being able to go through there in my speedboat without slowing down. These recollections would be lost if it was not for the efforts of our local historians who fully understand the value of place, people and memories. I hope I have these memories correct. I will gladly add more if anyone has some memories to share. 

I painted the Narrows before in #1399 "Red Horse Narrows", #1611 "Red Horse Narrows", #1744 "Autumn Narrows", #2658 "October Narrows 2021" and #2669 "Long Reaching into Red Horse". I even called two by the same name (1399 and 1611) ... something I try very hard not to do but it obviously happens. 

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#2657 "October Paddle 2021"

#2657 "October Paddle 2021"
7.75 x 7.75 inches oil on panel

I was out for an October paddle. This view is looking across the narrow point of land which separates the two arms of Long Reach. The trees are not thick enough to block the light. There was some wave action and I was enjoying the ride! 

The smooth and slippery surface was fun. The oils flowed like water... 

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#2656 "Oxtongue Morning Empty Chairs"

#2656 "Oxtongue Morning Empty Chairs"
16x20 oils

I wanted to revisit a favourite small panel and turn it into a larger format. 

I painted #2043 "Oxtongue Sunrise" on Sunday November 19th, 2017 in the Singleton Studio in front of a merry fire in the wood stove. It was much hotter day on May 11th, 2022 as Singleton switched from winter to summer in just a day. I would go for the first swim of 2022 later on that afternoon. 

This is the view looking northeast toward the early morning sun from out in the lake at 7:30 am on Sunday the 24th of September 2017. There was no one else around. I waded out into Oxtongue Lake with the water up past my waist. It would have been problematic to position my easel from this vantage point. There was some morning fog cloaking the distant hillsides. 

The Muskoka chairs were still empty. I inserted a dove grey canoe within the shadows of the floating dock. Tom Thomson's actual canoe probably was simply added to the fleet of Shannon Fraser's vessels for the visitor's to Mowat Lodge to enjoy. No record was made to state precisely where Tom's canoe actually went but it is unlikely it turned up at the dock on Oxtongue Lake in 2017 - a hundred years after he disappeared. My canoes are cherished friends to be respected and cared for and I am sure that Tom felt the same way. 

The first autumn colours were lighting up the deciduous forest of Algonquin Provincial Park in the fall of 2017. 

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#2655 "Cirrus Sunset in the May Singleton Sanctuary"

#2655 "Cirrus Sunset in the May Singleton Sanctuary"
16x20 inches oils

I wanted to do another skyscape on the heavy duty canvas panels that I had made. The other similar panels were mostly filled with landscapes and I wanted to continue with that theme. 

This skyscape from 8:25 pm on Friday May 6th, 2022 was a classic deformation zone. The knife edge of clearing in the northwestern sky revealed my favourite meteorological conceptual model. The deck of cirrostratus on the moist side of the deformation zone was crossed by multiple trains of gravity waves rippling in the warm, stable layer of the atmospheric ocean. I have written about and painted these processes for most of my career. Those lines in the sky say so much about the weather. 

On this particular spring evening those clouds spoke of a low pressure area and rain passing to the southeast of my Singleton Sanctuary. The skies would clear completely overnight as the deformation zone followed the low. Dew would form on the grass that I kept cut for the blue birds and robins that were feasting on the exposed insects. I left the dandelions and other early spring flowers untouched for the bees.

The evening, cool drainage wind funnelling down Lyndhurst Creek was rippling the west basin of the lake. As a result, the water adjacent to the far shoreline was reflecting the lighter, blue sky instead of the dark, forested shore. The diminishing waves in the eastern basin of Singleton were catching the overhead cirrostratus. Elsewhere the calm waters protected from the breeze, mirrored the quiet, spring Singleton forest. 

There was a light on at the campground to mark the start of another season. 

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#2654 "October Afternoon Paddle Down Long Reach"

#2654 "October Afternoon Paddle Down Long Reach"
18x22 inches oil

This is a favourite paddle. Long Reach is quite narrow at this point looking northeastward into the valley that separates the ridges of this portion of the Frontenac Arch Biosphere. It was a convective autumn afternoon. The cumulus congestus was threatening to shower on my parade but I was not concerned. The virga was beautiful. 

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#2653 "Swell April Sunset at Singleton"

#2653 "Swell April Sunset at Singleton"
18x22 inches oil

The sunset clouds approaching Singleton were classic and I felt that the weather story needed to be saved in oils. The sun had set below the horizon and the clouds were no longer on fire with the light. Science makes sense in the atmospheric ocean. 

The anticyclonic companion of the warm conveyor belt is typically the first to reach Singleton in advance of a storm. Those bands of cirrostratus in the sunset sky that were parallel to the leading deformation zone, were actually swells in the atmospheric ocean. Those large gravity waves were originating from the centre of the storm far to the west over Iowa. The sunset clouds that I painted were within the blue circle on the right side of the accompanying graphic. 

Gravity waves embedded within these swells revealed that the atmospheric frame winds were nearly perpendicular to the much larger swells. The entire pattern was shifting toward the south as I watched. The col in the deformation zone pattern had to be far to the north. 

Water Vapour Image of the Sunset

All of the atmospheric puzzle pieces fit snuggly together. Tornadoes and severe weather was occurring far to the west while I painted in relative calm. 

I used the word "swell" in a puny way to denote all possible meanings. As a noun "swell" means a full or gently rounded shape or form; a gradual increase in sound, amount, or intensity or the gravity wave propagating far from the energy source that generated it. As an adjective something that looks swell, also looks excellent. Swell as an adverb describes that the sunset was proceeding very well. Swell as a verb describes something becoming larger or rounder in size, typically as a result of an accumulation of fluid. Language can be very interesting. 

Jet flights to Europe were getting started. At least three contrails crossed the sunset sky. 

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