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Category: Cloud of the Month

Every month, we choose one of our favourite photographs from the Cloud Gallery to become our Cloud of the Month.

July 31, 2006
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Contrails (January ’05)

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(Click image to enlarge)

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A couple of contrails* blowing an air kiss to their friends in the Cloud Appreciation Society. Born at 40,000ft, these cheeky clouds aren’t in a hurry to go anywhere while they spread into gentle feathered cirrus layers called cirrostratus. If you watch their locks grow long in the wind, you can be sure these lovely ladies share a little secret – that rain will probably come in a day or two.

(* Contrails are the long straight man-made clouds that form behind high-altitude aircraft)

August 10, 2005
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Altostratus (August ’05)

Every Cloud Has its Day

Cloudspotters tend to think of the altostratus as a boring cloud. Indeed, it is a featureless, mid-level layer, which tends to give the sky a washed-out, overcast appearance. When it is thick, it is little more than a grey blanket that leads to prolonged light rain or snow. Much of the time, there seems little to recommend the altostratus.

But every cloud has its day – or rather, its time of day – and for this cloud, it is at sunrise and sunset. As you can see from the beautiful example above, that is when the altostratus dons her fancy clothes to paint the sky red. Her gentle undulations become visible for all to admire, her delicate surface awash with ruby hues.

She may be plain by day but, for fleeting moments at dawn and day’s end, the altostratus has a beauty to match any one of her more flamboyant cloud cousins.

Image © Irene, East Queensland, Australia