39 Comments

Loved these photos! One more that is my personal favorite: gravity waves shown in clouds. Gravity waves are buoyancy-driven waves that propagate through the atmosphere, much like ripples on a pond. Gravity waves can be evident in clouds that look like peaks and troughs. The photos may not be the most spectacular, but the process that creates them blew my mind the first time I learned about it.

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/4117/gravity-waves-ripple-over-marine-stratocumulus-clouds

Expand full comment
author

ME TOO. I've been obsessed with them for a decade now, after seeing this video of some from ground level: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXnkzeCU3bE

But in July, I learned about cloud streets for the first time! https://www.threads.net/@mikeachim/post/C868w4Cs-96

Expand full comment

That video is amazing! I study the propagation of low frequency waves in the atmosphere, but haven't ever seen a video of them actually moving through the clouds! I only ever see the resulting waveforms and wave propagation models.

Expand full comment
founding

That's incredible!

Expand full comment

Fascinating piece, as always, with some laugh out cloud moments.

Expand full comment

Mike your newsletter must have the most apt name on Substack. Amazing. The biblical parting of those clouds is astonishing. No wonder you were transfixed!

Expand full comment
Aug 13Liked by Mike Sowden

I love clouds! I live in Cape Town and we see the lenticular clouds often in winter time- I actually took a photograph yesterday of the 'wave' (Kelvin-Helmshotz) clouds - there were two rows of them in the sky.

Thank you for such a lovely substack - I thoroughly enjoy it.

Expand full comment
author

Aahhhh I would LOVE to see Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds out in the wild. Is it the first time you've seen them in Cape Town? It didn't seem to me like they're regularly seen anywhere in the world, but I'd love to be wrong about that!

Expand full comment

I have seen them here before and usually in winter! I think I saw them last year too! Usually it’s when I’m driving somewhere and can’t stop to take bad photos of them! This time I did manage!

Expand full comment

This piece was a DELIGHT, Mike. I couldn't stop smiling. Thank you for this gem!

Expand full comment
author

🙏 Thank you so much, Evelyn. :) Much more to come on this topic next season!

Expand full comment
Aug 13Liked by Mike Sowden

Love your fascinating posts! I am happy to report I've seen at least one lenticular (over a mountain peak), multiple mammatus (as storms were coming), a few fallstreak holes (one even with a rainbow inside!), LOTS of shelf clouds as the leading edge of storms (which thanks to you I now know is the other kind of arcus cloud), and I even saw that series of roll clouds called ‘Morning Glory’ years ago when I was living in Brisbane and there was a tropical cyclone up north. Have only seen that once in southeast Queensland in 20 years, so definitely rare and I'm glad I noticed them!

Expand full comment
author

Thank you, Michelle! Oh wow, you've seen far more than I have in person and I'm envious. But I'm hoping that in my case, learning about them is the first step to recognising them when I see them. (Did you know what those clouds were when you saw them, or did you have to go learn afterwards because the clouds made you curious about what was happening?)

Expand full comment

I was a sky nerd when I was a kid so I knew the basics, cumulus, nimbus, stratus, cirrus etc, but I add to my knowledge when I spot a new one 'in the wild'. I grew up in northern WA so not many interesting clouds there but live in SEQ now and there are PLENTY. Especially good for sunsets!

Actually now I think of it there were some interesting ones I photographed a few years ago that I didn't know if they had a name, I remember they looked a bit like messy spiderweb and it freaked me out a little as I don't like spiders. I'll see if I can find a pic and have a look if you have an email contact :)

Expand full comment

Actually I remembered I included it in a photography post I did on my blog, though the pic isn't original quality. It's a few photos down in https://stillnotajournal.com/2016/09/01/spring-cleaning-and-sunset-photography/ and I even commented about the web thing.

Expand full comment
Aug 13Liked by Mike Sowden

DELIGHTFUL. I've seen 2 & 3, & we get lenticular clouds regularly over Mount Blanca, but I've never seen 4 or 5! Or your cloudy sky splitting like the Red Sea, though I have achieved similar feats, but somehow only when I'm dreaming, which seems unfair. How long do I need to practice something in dreams before I can do it when I'm awake?

Expand full comment
author

If you start parting the clouds with your mind, I'm calling the X-Men.

Expand full comment
Aug 26Liked by Mike Sowden

That's fair, I could probably use some training.

Expand full comment
author

Don't let that Wolverine give you any lip. Yes, he yells and murders people and so on, but deep down he's just a poodle.

Expand full comment

So I just gotta scritch him behind the ears & ask him who's a good boy, then. I can do that.

Expand full comment

I've seen the horizontal cloud thing. Hikes my blood pressure to. I'm going to digest this.

Expand full comment
author

If it gives you a light head, please stop thinking about it. No newsletter is worth a headache! :)

Expand full comment

Amazing cloud pictures

Expand full comment
author

They are! I'm grateful to the photographers. And also the sky, for so effortlessly putting on an amazing show every day...

Expand full comment
Aug 13Liked by Mike Sowden

Love the OMG <cloud type> - you captured the normal human reactions exactly!!

Expand full comment
author

Thank you! I do try to be as human as possible in this newsletter even though I'm as emotionless as a robot in real life. :D

Expand full comment

Thanks Mike. Do you know why clouds are so hard for artists to depict? Because half the time if you showed them accurately people would scoff and dismiss them as unrealistic. The pain is real. And with that I will return to carving the sky on a reduction linoprint (two layers of blue/white/grey/just-what-is-that down, another two or three to go).

Expand full comment

Beautiful, fascinating pictures that stretch the mind. I always find that a good dose of scientific humility goes a long way. How cool and unexpected is the earth?! Thanks for sharing.

Expand full comment

The mothership has arrived.

Expand full comment

This was fun. As a kid I proudly said to my science teacher in primary school that I wanted to be a meteorologist and study clouds. He said that women don't do that and my dream was crushed. I now know that this man was an absolute prick, but I never lost my love for clouds, a good weather radar and detailed forecast. Will definitely buy the Cloudspotting for Beginners book! Thanks for that rec.

Expand full comment

Really interesting! My husband has just gotten his pilot's license and on our second flight we flew near (not TOO near!) a cloud just DUMPING rain with an accompanying rainbow. It was an amazing sight: https://www.facebook.com/share/hAUEyCrLjhJC42T8/

Pilots, it turns out, have a keen understanding of clouds and what they portend -- lenticular clouds, for instance, are very bad news for planes and something to stay away from because of the downdrafts around them. I look forward to the next series!

Expand full comment