03/03/12, 4 pm, looking north

03/04/12, noon, looking west

We had occasional glimpses of sunshine but the bulk of the weekend was overcast with a few spitting showers. 


Overcast refers to the amount of cloud cover in the sky. Completely overcast means that there is no sky visible. The level of cloud cover is measured in oktas, or eighths. So  a completely overcast sky is measured at eight oktas. Oktas only estimate the area of the sky covered by clouds, not the type of cloud covering it.


It was cool and breezy, not cold and not warm. The clouds piled up in huge masses with dark shadows beneath them. Like in the Sunday painting, sometimes the clouds looked like rumpled quilt batting--a folded and layered field of cotton in the sky.