Weather pattern

05/07/12, 2:30 pm, looking southwest

This weather system moved into Central Virginia on Monday, May 7th with big, fat cumulus clouds and average seasonal temperatures (74 degrees F). The scattered clouds blew along and formed interesting gray and white shapes and gaps of pale blue sky.


By the following afternoon, the sky was overcast with layers of gray cloud punctuated by light breaking through in places. The day had warmed to the upper 70's and the humidity was thick.

05/08/12, 2 pm looking northeast

Wednesday was slightly cooler with 100 percent humidity. The air felt thick and heavy. By afternoon the dark and threatening clouds spawned heavy showers with thunderstorms overnight. The total rainfall reached almost an inch.

05/09/12, 4 pm looking west

 The next morning was cool and clearing with a clean fresh feeling and a nice breeze. Little disorganized stratus clouds with higher cirrus above them covered the sky. The cool front had swept through and brought a lovely day. 


The weather system was complete--a cycle of clear, cloudy, rain, clearing with a warm to cool temperature change.

05/10/12, 11:45 am looking east

Another hot one

05/04/12, 1 pm, looking west

Well, you know by now that a hot, humid day means cumulus clouds.  We are in a weather pattern in early May that looks (and feels!) more like summer. May 4th was the first day in 2012 with 100 percent humidity.


These softly disorganized cumulus clouds are not yet the towering, stark cumulus of summer, but we are headed that way. Early, too.

Soft, soft clouds

05/03/12, 11:45 am, looking east

These huge cumulus clouds looked so soft that the edges between sky and cloud aren't really there. The overnight cooler front broke up the overcast skies we had for the past two days. On this day we saw blue sky and these soft clouds, and the high was only 82 F.


Imagine you could reach up and touch such softness. Instead of a commercial for toilet tissue, it would feel cool and damp. Misty drops would collect on the fine hairs on your forearm. Ahhh.

Cumulus clouds arriving

03/15/12, 9 am, looking northwest

Beware the ides of clouds! Well, clouds don't have ides of course but I had to work them in somewhere today. The idea of clouds having a middle is strange. How can something so undefined have a mid-point?


This bank of cumulus clouds rolled east this morning--a big mass just above the horizon and smaller floaty clouds above. The temperature should reach 85 degrees F today with rain overnight and only slightly cooler temperatures tomorrow. I bet it will be humid, though!

Clouding up

02/13/12, 5:30 pm, looking northwest

Late in the day on Monday, February 13th, the clouds began to gather with a mix of cirrus and cumulus clouds. A weather change is on the way with warmer temperatures and rain later in the week. 


Monday's high was 35 and low was 18 degrees F. Even though it was cold, one could feel the warmth and humidity on the breeze. The rest of the week looks more like highs in the low 50's and lows in the mid-30's.


Days are longer now with sunset coming by 5:45 pm and later each day. These mostly cirrus clouds were not yet stained with sunset colors, but had lovely lavender shadows.

Night clouds

Last night's changing weather pattern from misty rain to crisp clear and windy raced by in these fast-moving cumulus clouds punctuated by gaps of blue-black night sky. I was facing the east at about 10 pm watching these boiling clouds and the glimpses of dark sky emerging between them. The rain was still misting lightly and the air was humid.


The clouds were moving to the left in the watercolor toward the northeast. The temperature began to drop slightly after 11 pm and kept going through the night to reach about 50 degrees F by early morning.