#2725 "Sunset on American Thanksgiving 2022"

#2725 "Sunset on American Thanksgiving 2022"
11x14 inches oils on canvas

This is the American Thanksgiving sunset at 4:18 pm Thursday, November 24th, 2022. It was almost a summer's day and I enjoyed most of it outside. The bands of cirrus stretching in the deforming flow aloft revealed that a rain system was emerging from the Gulf of Mexico. The cirrus clouds were at multiple levels. The highest clouds to the west were still catching the setting sun. There were atmospheric swells and deformation zones mixed up with those lines in the sky. 

Speed Decrease in the Atmospheric Frame of Reference
causes wind perpendicular deformation zones

The curl at the end of the band of cloud is associated with a decrease in wind speed. 

Within the atmospheric frame of reference, a decreasing wind speed requires deformation zones perpendicular to the direction of the flow.

Speed Increase in the Atmospheric Frame of Reference
causes wind parallel deformation zones

If the speed of the flow increases, the deformation zones must parallel the direction of the flow. 

The fingers of your Coriolis Hand when aligned with the curl of the cloud reveals if the moisture is associated with the cyclonic or anticyclonic companions of the atmospheric flow. The accompanying graphics illustrate the science that applies globally. 

The Conveyor Belt Conceptual Model

It did rain hard overnight and into the following morning when I recorded this sunset sky in oil. I used quite a lot of paint and employed the following approach. Art needs to be fun. 

• Load the brush;
• Drop the paint in one sweep;
• Move on. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels.

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick

#2724 "November Georgian Bay Snowsqualls Reaching Singleton"

#2724 "November Georgian Bay Snowsqualls Reaching Singleton"
11x14 oils on canvas

This was the start of the snowsquall outbreak behind the cold front. The first blast of cold Arctic air to flood over the warm Great Lakes tends to produce some very memorable and severe snow events. The forecasts were quite excellent. We had begun talking about this setup a week previously. My friend Tom was interviewed on Fox Weather and he used my Paradise painting as a backdrop. Parts of New York State observed more than five feet of snow. 

Nighttime Microphysics RGB Satellite Image

These snowsqualls originated from Georgian Bay and only reached Singleton during the late afternoon hours after a daytime of heating. The instability created by heating the land is essential for allowing the snowsqualls to penetrate far inland. The instability created by the cold air passing over the warm water bodies of the Great Lakes can only take those squalls so far inland. After that, they need a boost. This is the way those squalls looked at 5 pm on Thursday, November 17th, 2022. 

The squalls would stay westerly on Friday but on Saturday, to quote the weather warning: "An intense snow squall currently over Lake Ontario is forecast to drift northward tonight. This snow squall will move out of the area early Sunday morning. Snow squalls cause weather conditions to vary considerably; changes from clear skies to heavy snow within just a few kilometres are common. Road closures are possible." That is pretty much what happened. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels.

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick

#2723 "November Sugar Maples and Roots"

#2723 "November Sugar Maples and Roots"
6x6 by 3/4 inches oils on canvas

The November sun was melting the snow as
well as warming my back.

I only turned my field easel 45 degrees cyclonically after completing #2722 "Red Oak and Black Cherry in the Singleton Sanctuary". I liked how the sun lit up the old moss on the roots of the maple trees. 

The sun felt great on my back but it would be short-lived. I did put my cotton gloves on as the near-freezing temperatures felt chilly even with the light breeze in the forest. 

There is almost no detail as I purposely take my glasses off while doing plein air. 

The intense snow squall over Lake Ontario was forecast to drift northward late in the day and linger over the area through to Sunday morning. To quote the warning "Snow squalls cause weather conditions to vary considerably; changes from clear skies to heavy snow within just a few kilometres are common. Road closures are possible. Consider postponing non-essential travel until conditions improve. If you must travel, keep others informed of your schedule and destination and carry an emergency kit and mobile phone." 

The low crossing Lake Ontario was going to cause the winds to back thus directing the 270 degree snowsquall aimed at Watertown into a 210 degree snowsquall affecting Singleton. We were ready. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels.

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick

#2722 "Red Oak and Black Cherry in the Singleton Sanctuary"

#2722 "Red Oak and Black Cherry in the Singleton Sanctuary"
6x6 by 3/4 inches oils on canvas

Colder air was on its way. Snowsqualls had developed across the Great Lakes overnight. But it was a sunny morning at Singleton and I decided to spend it outside with my oils. 

It was too windy and cold on the lake shore so I walked into the relative protection of the Singleton forest. I did not have to go very far before I found something to catch my eye. 

The red oak on the left was healthy, straight and tall. The black cherry on the right was struggling. Some of the upper branches had already come crashing down. A neighbouring black cherry had fallen a couple of years previously. The bark of the two trees is distinctive and decidedly different. 

The snowsqualls would penetrate further inland with daytime heating and instability so there was no time to waste. The sun felt great on my back but that would be short-lived. I did put my cotton gloves on as the near-freezing temperatures felt chilly even with the light breeze in the forest. 

There is almost no detail as I purposely take my glasses off while doing plein air. It is helpful to not see the unnecessary details and it saves me from squinting. 

I heard the trumpeter swans in the distance possible on Little Mud Lake. I hear them most often when I am out en plein air surrounded by nature.

For this and much more art, click on Pixels.

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick

#2721 "November Singleton Sunset Snow Clouds"

#2721 "November Singleton Sunset Snow Clouds"
10x12 by 0.5 inches oils on smooth panel 

The weather system bringing the first significant snow accumulation of the season was on the western horizon. The centre of the initial system was passing south of Lake Ontario. Thermal troughing would develop over the Great Lakes after the cold air settled into the basin. It looked like the start of winter. There were sure to be snow squalls off the Great Lakes but these would be unlikely to reach as far north as Singleton. 

Those clouds were laden with snow and virga was already wafting toward the ground. The automated software used by short-range weather prediction had been saying that the snow started hours before and was continuing. These packages simply extrapolated the radar patterns and had no way of knowing that the radar echoes were all virga and not snow reaching the ground. Virga is typical when the cold conveyor belt feeding into the system is cold and dry. It was a very chilly day to be outside in the raw easterly wind. 

The snow started overnight and the visibility dropped to less than a kilometre - the first marble point on our shore was obscured by snowfall. A rule of thumb indicated that the snow would accumulate at about a centimetre an hour. 

I measured 9 centimetres of accumulation on cold metal surfaces. The accumulation over concrete and the lawn was closer to 7 centimetres due to the associated melting with the higher heat capacities of those surface types. 

This was the last of the smooth MDF panels that I had prepared. I wanted to do one last sunset on the slippery surface. I included the marble point on the west side of Jim Day Rapids which is something that I do not often do. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels.

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick

#2720 "Singleton Cirrostratus November Sunset"

#2720 "Singleton Cirrostratus November Sunset"
12x10 by 1/2 inch depth oils on panel

The cirrostratus was approaching from the west in broad bands. I considered the broad swaths of cirrostratus as Langmuir streaks parallel to the warm conveyor belt flow. There were embedded gravity waves perpendicular to the streaks. The wavelength of these gravity waves was quite long so I diagnosed them as swells implying that the centre of the weather system was still far away in space at least a day away in time. 

Water Vapour View at the time of the Sunset

The cloud bands were drifting slowly toward the south and curved gently in that direction as well. Using my Coriolis hand and curling my fingers in the direction of that curvature, forced me to point my right thumb downward. The air was descending within the anticyclonic companion of the conveyor belt conceptual model. That helped to explain why there was only a minimal amount of cirrostratus to cloud the sunset. 

The surface winds were light northwesterlies and chilly. These winds placed Singleton within the cold air mass. The system when it arrived, would likely bring snow. 

The forecast weather for the next sunset 24 hours in the future

The preceding description deciphers the words written in cloud script on the sky tablet. I have read the "cirrostratus coming at us" story before many times so I had a pretty good idea of how it would end. It is not difficult with some practice and I encourage everyone to slow down and give it a try. The sky and weather are big parts of nature and like proposed Thoreau, it can be a healthy and low-footprint lifestyle. 

From an artistic point I view, I quite enjoy the subtle greens and yellows within the sunset shades of cirrostratus. That was enough reason for me to remember the view in oils on a very slippery surface. I made a bunch of these panels a few years back and they were more than ready to be used. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels.

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick

#2719 "Lofty Altocumulus Singleton Sunset"

#2719 "Lofty Altocumulus Singleton Sunset"
10x12 by 1/2 inches oils on smooth panel

The November sunset sky was full of colour and science. 

Water vapour imagery depicts the three-
dimensional aspects of the intense vortex
over southeastern Iowa. Another autumn
storm was on the way.

The high-based altocumulus clouds revealed several different wave-trains of energy. The cold front had passed through in the morning but another warm front was building in quickly across the Great Lakes. The weather is always inspirational. 

I used a very smooth panel and concentrated on mixing the right colours and simply laying them in place. The oils were very thick on the surface and provided a lot of texture. This sky is meant to be a pair for #2718 "The Eve of Remembering". 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels.

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick

#2718 "The Eve of Remembering"

#2718 "The Eve of Remembering"
10x12 by 1/2 inch in-depth smooth panel oils

The following day would be Remembrance Day. It is a special day even though I think of my parents pretty much every day anyway. I still wear the light plaid jacket that we had given my Father in 1999 a couple of years before he passed. I think of him every time I put it on. 

The cirrus with this system originated with a winter storm over the Nickel Belt. I watched atmospheric swells spreading southward in the sunset sky. The swells were rippling outward from that northern disturbance. There were smaller, wind-induced gravity waves embedded on top of the swells. 

The rain from Hurricane Nicole was still a day away to the south. Nicole made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane just south of Florida's Vero Beach early on Thursday, the day before Friday and Remembrance Day. Nicole quickly weakened into a tropical storm hitting the state with heavy rains and widespread, strong winds. 

Hurricane Nicole 2022

The combination of Hurricanes Ian and Nicole across Florida might finally emphasize that waterfront property in Florida is a poor investment as it is reclaimed by the oceans. 

I used a very smooth panel and concentrated on mixing the right colours and simply laying them in place. The oils were very thick on the surface and provided a lot of texture. This is meant to be a pair for #2719 "Lofty Altocumulus Singleton Sunset". 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels.

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick

#2717 "Singleton Sanctuary November Tamaracks"

#2717 "Singleton Sanctuary November Tamaracks"
11x14 oils on canvas

The colours of the larch within the Singleton Sanctuary were just a bit past prime when I seized the opportunity to go out and paint them. It was windy with gusts to 20 knots. The sun felt great on my shoulder but 22 degrees Celsius in early November is certainly not justified. I was even bitten by a black fly and was pestered a bit by blowflies. One black fly got mixed in with the oils.

Tamaracks or larch are favourites of mine. I have painted them before. The larch's fiery, bright autumn colours are still around long after all the deciduous trees have lost their leaves. I wore a blaze orange toque for safety. No one should be hunting the Singleton Sanctuary but one can't be too careful.

Larch trees, also known as tamaracks, are a favourite species among many people because they are both beautiful and unique. These trees are both deciduous and coniferous. It is found in every province and territory in Canada. Most conifer trees keep their needles year-round, but tamaracks are deciduous conifers — their needles fall off in autumn and new ones grow in spring. Tamarack has a medium to fast growth rate (2.5 feet per year) in its youth. This slows down over time. Healthy trees can reach from 70 to 75 feet high and 25 to 30 feet wide at maturity. It provides cover from summer heat for bears and deer but is browsed by relatively few species. Snowshoe hares feed on twigs and bark, and porcupines feed on the inner bark. Spruce grouse eat the needles and buds. 

Tamarack is a smaller tree that rarely exceeds 75 feet in height, while western larch can exceed 180 feet. Tamarack trees may live for 200 years, while western larch can often exceed 400 years of age. The extremely thick bark (up to 6 inches) allows these trees to survive many forest fires without damage. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels.

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick