May 25: Clouds and a balloon

[neverspent]

Last night, it rained before and after sunset, and in between, the sky was chaotic and beautiful, with at least three types and five or six varieties of clouds, including cirrostratus undulatus, some ribbony vellum, and possibly cirrocumulus. I love this type of sky, even though it's not peaceful and can drive me to distraction trying to identify the clouds.




By morning, the clouds had cleared. When I looked out my balcony I saw a most unexpected thing floating in the irridescent sunrise haze: a hot air balloon. By enhancing a picture I took with a telephoto lens, I can just tell that it's decorated with diagonal blocks in shades of yellow and red.




To add to the excitement of things in the sky, when I left work in the afternoon, giant, crisp pillars of puffy clouds had built up: cumulus congestus, ahead of some evening storms. Atop one of them I spotted pileus, the combover of clouds, which forms when air is forced up over the top of the cumulus cloud. They're not easy to spot because they form and dissipate so quickly. I tried to get a photo with my camera, but it wasn't good, so here's a beautiful one by another cloudspotter.

(Edited to add:) After storms this evening, the sun came out for just a bit as it was setting, and created a broad, faint rainbow above the pine trees in the east. Hot air balloon and a rainbow? Today has been like a Muppet movie!

Comments

[donutsweeper]

I love the haziness of the sky behind that balloon. Beautiful.

[neverspent]

Thank you! That's really typical of summer mornings here: the humidity increases overnight and when the sun come up, it gives the sky this diffuse glow. It's usually not that nice for photographing, but it makes the balloon kind of atmospheric, I think.

[donutsweeper]

atmospheric! Yes, exactly the word I was looking for!