Baja Clouds - A Weather Forecast

"You must not blame me if I do talk to the clouds." THOREAU


Okay Nomads, here's question for you. When you're out walking with your head in the clouds, did you ever wonder...
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"What kind of clouds are these, anyway?"
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The answer in my case, as shown here, is...Cirrus..or 'serious' as I called them in my youth.

That's these high, wispy, often transparent clouds that form in the upper layer of our atmosphere called the troposphere. Just so you know, cirrus clouds are formed when water vapor freezes into ice crystals at altitudes above 8000 meters (26,000 ft). They tend to be very thin due to the sparse moisture at such a high altitude. Streaks may appear straight when wind shear is absent, giving the clouds the appearance of a comma or tangle, an indication of high-level turbulence. Those falling ice crystals evaporate before reaching the ground, hence we usually get no rain from these guys.

There are several variations of cirrus cloud. The ones I photographed above are cirrus fibratus...you remember, the ones our folks taught us to call Mare's Tails, because of their resemblance to a "mare's tail" appearance.. long, fibrous, and curved. Possibly like your prom date.

Other variations you may have seen.. sometimes these clouds are so extensive that they are virtually indistinguishable from one another, forming a sheet of cirrus called cirrostratus. The un-enlightened masses just look up and say...Overcast.

Manmade marvels: Cirrus clouds have also been observed developing after the persistent formation of contrails from an aircraft. Increase in air traffic is a possible cause of an increasing amount of cirrus clouds. We all see jet contrails more and more..everywhere on earth.. aircraft leaving condensation trails that can turn into cirrus clouds. This happens when hot exhaust, mostly water, freezes, leaving a visible trail leading back to Al Gore's jet zooming around the globe.

Cirrus clouds..What do they Forecast?

Isolated cirrus clouds do not often bring rain, however, high numbers of them like those I photographed in Coyote Bay the other day can indicate an approaching frontal system or upper air disturbance. WIND! It is a good weather indicator for 'whether' you go fishing or not. Cirrus clouds can also be the remnants of a thunderstorm. A large shield of cirrus and cirrostratus typically accompany the high altitude outflow of hurricanes or typhoons.

This many cirrus usually signals a change in weather in the near future, usually becoming increasingly stormy. In our case near Mulege it meant increased winds at sea..resulting in another day spent ashore due to whitecapping conditions yesterday...carumba! Gimme some nice fluffy pillow clouds anytime...

...Maybe manana?
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Aha..I may have found another hobby that will keep me from working. A good winter project..collect as many photos of these cloud types as possible from my patio, and check out their related forecasts.
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[Edited on 11-11-2009 by Pompano]

Hey thanks for the good info.
So by funny coincidence i took a picture of a beauty of a cloud this morning and was just looking at it on my computer when i read your post.
Around here clouds blast by in a blink but you will always find this type somewhere in the sky. Do you know which type it is?

Aq

My favorite clouds are the ones that make a mackerel sky.

And they are just as great seen from the above as from the below. At least that's what I think I'm seeing when flying over the Pacific. A very peaceful experience, if you've ever had it.

What, no clouds?

You need this guy to help you out.

Those standing Lenticulars.....Alto Cumulus Lenticularus.....clouds are formed when there is a strong wind over a mountain and there is a layer of unstable air between two layers of stable air. The cloud stands still because it is formed by the air rising and cooling and then it is evaporated by the air falling and heating up.

If you fly a sail plane...glider to most folks...you go looking for "Lenies" because they are an elevator. All you need to do to gain lots of altitude fast is to put your nose into the wind and jockey the stick back and forward to change your air speed so it matches the wind on your nose by looking at the ground and staying over one spot......you go straight up!. When you are high enough you can "step out" of the Lenie and play with the altitude..do loops and rolls and, if you're good and brave too, a split S or two. Some guys set altitude records in sail planes in Lenies....up to 35 and 40,000 feet. They get a clearance from the FAA to fly above 18000, wear O2 masks and electric socks and suits. I know people who have flown from Minden, Nv., where there is a "Wave Camp" in the fall, all the way to Mt. Baldy above LA and back by riding Lenies.!!!

Most sail planes have at least 20:1 glide ratios......you lose one foot for every 20 you fly horizontally....some have 50 or 60:1 ratios. So if you get 10K feet out of a Lenie and you soar at 50 knots you can go about 35 miles in a 20:1 sail plane before you gotta go looking for more lift.

If you fly a powered plane through a Lenie you will get some violent bumps....you are powering trough a wave just as a speed boat powers through one in the water. You had better slow down the "Maneuvering Speed"....the speed at which, for your weight, the airplane's wing will stall before anything bends or breaks.

Under a Lenie in the mountains there is sometimes a "rotor cloud"....literally a spinning cloud on the downwind side of the mountain. If you get into one you will never forget it...if you survive.

The way to think about Lenies is to remember a big rock in a fast flowing stream where the water flows over the rock and then produces waves down stream of it where there is no rock.

Clouds are fun and like a beautiful book and, if you fly in them like me, you come to respect them as almost nothing else. There are many good books about flying in cloud. Among them is "North Star Over My Shoulder" by Bob Buck, TWA, retired. He was Howard Hughes's personal pilot, flew a DC3 at 175 knots around the world with Tyrone Power, a Hughes MGM star at the time.....long trip! He flew a whole bunch of other fun trips....for instance one around the world north to south to north over both poles in a B707....before GPS or Loran....guess what a compass does over the pole? He also did research in WWII in a B-17 on the static produced in antennae by storms....he did that by flying for hundreds of miles in solid thunderstorm in the InterTropic Convergence Zone which is about 5 degrees (guess) north and south of the equator.

Thanks for reading about .00001% of what I think about clouds and flying. Hope you're not bored.

CLOUDS!

Not to worry about being bored, Bonanza. Clouds have been man's pastime since forever.



Up North Thunderheads have always been my passion since childhood.

"When clouds appear like rocks and towers,
The earth's refreshed by frequent showers."


.. but fog can be entertaining at times....Right, all you Oregon Coast dwellers?

Here's a prairie thunderstorm mixed with some stratus....THE FOG.
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Remnants of Hurricane Norberto clouds at Coyote Bay

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And occasionaly California encounters this: "Clouds do not always mean rain, but SMOKE is a sure sign of fire."

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And then there are the BAD BOYS..which form these devils. Been there, done that...

http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=13673#pid1150...
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Those monsters of the mighty sky.

Hi Skeet, we did a fair bit of gliding..and towing same...on the windy areas of northern ND and Montana. Have you ever been towed aloft on a really, really long cable behind a speeding car..then cut loose? Fun stuff.
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There has been a few glider pilots who have rode the thermals from Manitoba to Texas

These are great....and thanks for the info....

similar to the original foto of Pompano's.

it looks like i/they was/were going REEEALLY fast!

[Edited on 11-14-2009 by woody in ob]

For Skeet:
I don't think there is a CB up there at all....all I see is a tall Lenie that was made higher by a strong wave...made higher by a strong wind from the other side of that mountain. I think a CB would have been higher than the cloud in the picture. I don't know how high those mountains are but I think CB would be something like FL 25 to FL 35 in southern latitudes...the farther south you go the higher they get....up to FL 50 at the equator.

But I ani't a professional Weather Guesser. I only fly through what the professional Weather Guessers kinda "forecast" and then I always go "take a look" for myself, as any old and not bold pilot will do. I don't know many Weather Guessers who fly....maybe there's something there like "preacher's kids."

BTW: I said in that long post that the Lenie is formed when there is unstable air between two layers of stable air....the Weather Guessers say it the other way around. But I like my way better.....to get condensation as in a Lenie you gotta have saturated air, at the local temperature, and you usually get that when the air is unstable. But.....it doesn't matter much. Unless an old and not bold pilot is flying a sail plane.....slow....such old and not bold pilot goes someplace else to commit his aviation whenever he sees a Lenie or a Rotor cloud.

Clouds

They are like snow flakes...