(Click image to enlarge) Photographed over Murcia, Spain © Steen Hastrup-Stilling.
See this photo in the Cloud Gallery here.
Have you ever noticed cloud-shaped shadows creeping over the ground on a sunny day? These can be cast by drifting Cumulus, as they are swept overhead in the breeze. Such shadows are a pleasing connection between sky and land. They might even catch the attention of those poor individuals who, blind to the beauty of the sky, walk around staring at their feet.
But the most dramatic and spectacular cloud shadows don’t actually reach the ground at all. They are the ones cast from one part of the sky to another.
You can’t beat cloud shadows to give a sense of perspective and scale to the atmosphere. Take these majestic ones cast at sunrise from the line of Cumulus towers on the horizon in November’s Cloud of the Month. Here the shadows aren’t cast down onto the ground, but onto a layer of Altocumulus, through which the Cumulus summits have grown.
The effect is rather like when you use your hands to make shadow shapes on the wall. But we are very pleased to say that the cloud version is considerably more beautiful and, in contrast to our own, it doesn’t inevitably end up producing the shape of bunnies, flying doves, or some mutant hybrid of the two.
Current Cloud of the Month:
March 2010
Previous Clouds of the Month:
February 2010
January 2010
Cloud Reflections (December 09)
Numbers in the Clouds (November 09)
Sun Pillar (October 09)
Convection Clouds (September 09)
‘Pile d’Assiettes’ (August 09)
Cumulus congestus (July 09)
‘Asperatus’ (June 09)
Clouds at Night (May 09)
Sundogs (April 09)
Diamond Dust (March 09)
Cloud Streets (February 09)
Crepuscular Rays (Jan 09)
Valley Fog (December 08)
Cloud Shadows (November 08)
Contrails (October 08)
Mamma (September 08)
Kármán Vortex (August 08)
The Summertime Halo (July 08)
The Nor’west Arch (June 08)
Microbursts (May 08)
Irridescent Clouds (April 08)
Northern Lights – Aurora Borealis (March 08)
Ice halos (February 08)
Lightning (January 08)
Roll Cloud (December 07)
Banner Cloud (November 07)
Stratocumulus (October 07)
The Unclassified Cloud (September 07)
Alexander’s Dark Band (August 07)
Fumulus Snail (July 07)
Distrail (June 07)
Altocumulus undulatus (May 07)
Cumulonimbus capillatus (April 07)
Lacunosus (March 07)
Horseshoe Vortex Cloud (February 07)
Jet-Stream Cirrus (Janurary 07)
Altostratus/Altocumulus/Altowhateveritis (December 06)
Anti-Crepuscular Rays (November 06)
Stratocumulus (October 06)
Altocumulus (September ’06)
The Kelvin-Helmholtz Wave Cloud (August ’06)
The ‘Brocken Spectre’ (July ’06)
‘Whale’s Mouth’ (June ’06)
Noctilucent (May ’06)
Cirrus (April ’06)
Cap Cloud (March ’06)
Fallstreak Holes (February ’06)
Nacreous (January ’06)
Cirrostratus (December ’05)
Tuba (November ’05)
Virga (October ’05)
Cirrocumulus (September ’05)
Altostratus (August ’05)
Cumulus (July ’05)
Mamma (June ’05)
Pileus (May ’05)
Lenticularis (April ’05)
Stratus (March ’05)
Cumulonimbus (February ’05)
Contrails (January ’05)
To
contribute a Cloud of the Month,
go to our Photograph Submissions
page.
