The busier I get, the more I look at clouds. Especially while I'm driving. If I ever die in a nasty car accident, odds on that it was caused by my attention being caught by an especially stunning cloud/sunset/weather front. Mind you (touches wood nervously) I've never had an accident after over 20 years of driving, so maybe it just keeps me sane.
This was a weird evening. We were having a picnic with friends by Lake Ginninderra and suddenly the sky turned yellow with these odd patterns in the clouds. We were all yellow-tinged, and looked like the Simpsons. Then it just went away, no storm, nothing.
Unlike tonight -- thunder is booming outside my window and the lights just flickered, which is the universe's way of saying: GET OFF THE FRIGGING COMPUTER, WOMAN, AND HAVE AN EARLY NIGHT. Yes, ma'am.
Postscript: Hil has one of these photos as well, with all the right terminology... mammatus clouds. I used to know lots of cloud types when I was at school, but they fell out of my head over the years. I think I'll have to do some revision.
And last night's crashingly exciting storm wreaked havok on the inner north of Canberra. BB reports that parts of Civic still have thick layers of hail at 7.30am, even though it fell at midnight. ANU students and staff had been advised not to go in as over 60 buildings are damaged... and all I can think is that I left a couple of windows open in the Book Studio. I'll ride my bike in (the paths are pretty clear, according to BB) and check it out, which will be much easier than driving into Civic, I imagine. How excitement.
9 comments:
The beloved reminds me that the cloud formation you have photographed are referred to as "mammatus" (and he gave an explanation of how they're formed)
Hil had another great cloud picture on her blog, perhaps from the same evening.
I've just made my home page the cloudappreciationsociety.org and the photography is superb. I tend to go there and get lost for a while so I can recommend it for wool gathering moments.
Wow, so she did. And hers is fantastic. And she knew the right terminology, smart kitty. It was such an eerie sight.
Thanks, MC. It's a great name, really breasty.
Mine was from about a week ago, so I was interested that they were around again. And I can't claim any kudos - my husband is a climate scientist and just knew. He also gave an explanation of how they're formed, too! - something to do with rapid updrafts in forming thunderstorms.
Wasn't the storm amazing? Down here in Woden it was just really heavy rain and great thunder and lightening, but it must have been violent in the city. I'm starting to get calls about the ANU being closed, glasshouses smashed at CSIRO, the Botanic Gardens closed and Civic traffic in gridlock; and my daughter had stories of huge hail and piles of hail nearly a metre deep on the sides of the road and out at the museum last night.
Hope the studio is okay...
Hil, you know that this means that our partners know each other...
It was the same night, Hil, I just hadn't had the chance to post it until then! And yes, you and mummy Crit need to pow-wow. Maybe the three of us should do coffee?
Lets! Actually, because the beloved has only been in town a year, they might not know each other, but he knew the woman they interviewed on 666. I'm about to quiz him...
Fancy that, mummy/crit! Three way coffee sounds cool :-). Thundering again here at the moment... and here comes the rain!
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