Cloud spotting

The Wee ‘Un and I were working in the vegetable patch under a clear, blue sky when the wind freshened dramatically, the temperature dropped, an armada of cloud swept down from the north-west, and we had to bolt inside to escape a five-minute hail storm. As the storm passed, the sky cleared again and the Wee ‘Un and I had an excellent opportunity for one of our favourite “games”—cloud spotting.

As the serried ranks of cloud receded to the south-east, the Wee ‘Un and I took the binoculars outside  to see what we could see. It was immediately obvious that he’s been paying attention because, while he couldn’t quite get the name of the main cloud formation past his tongue, he was able to tell me what had happened: “Well, the sun’s been shining on the ground and the air was warm, so when the wind blew the cold air over the top, it got all mixed up and made big clouds. Then, it was so cold high up in the clouds that water turned to ice and it hailed on us”. Not a bad description of a cold front passing through.

After further thinking, the Wee ‘Un decided the clouds were like “sky cauliflowers”, which is an apt description for cumulonimbus.  High above them were cirrus, while close examination of the cumulonimbus revealed some were “soft and fluffy”, not sharp. That made them cumulonimbus calvus, which indicates that ice is forming—as we well knew from our time under them.

As we watched the receding clouds, the Wee ‘Un was delighted to spot a shower of rain falling in the distance and gleefully announced “someone else is getting pinged with hail”. After that, it was time to return to the gardening.