10.9- Skywatch Friday - Mixed sky

A mix of clouds fills the western sky over Green Creek
(Click on picture or here for full size)

Inspired by Dewdrop's recent Cloud Lessons on the Skywatch Friday site, I have been trying to learn my clouds, and taking a lot of pictures of clouds so I can study and compare them with pictures and descriptions in weather books and on-line.

As Dewdrop rightly pointed out, a sailor should know clouds, so I am slowly working through "Weather for the Mariner," by William J. Kotsch, Rear Admiral USN (Ret.), and refering to a couple of other weather-for-sailors books I have access to... unfortunately, they are all a bit dated, featuring black & white photos and lots of information on a (I assume) now moribund network of "telefacsimile"-transmitted isobar maps that seems to have been on the cutting edge of weather info sometime in the ancient past.

Today's main picture features a mixed sky, which I think includes cirrostratus, cirrus, altocumulus and/or cirrocululus (I can't quite tell the difference between those two), a tad of fractostratus, and some condensation trails.

I think... The hardest part for me right now is determining the altitude of the clouds I see, both in absolute terms and in relation to other clouds. I am hoping it is just a matter of looking at the skies a bit more (SWF has prompted me to do that) and to patiently do my homework on clouds and weather systems (as noted earlier, Dewdrop has inspired me to do that.)

I am still using the books to decode todays pictures, (taken yesterday), and am watching the shifting fronts and pressure systems on NOAA and WeatherUnderground to get a sense of why the sky filled with so many different types of clouds yesterday after several days of pure blue sky.

I would love to hear comments from the SWF community about the types of clouds in today's pictures.

Here are a few more cloud pictures, also taken yesterday:

#2) More mixed clouds, this time facing East over the Neuse River:

#3) Altocumulus or Cirrocumulus ??? (facing just north of west):

#4) Straight above... condensation trail becoming cirrus ???

I look forward to seeing the other Skywatch pictures from around the world on the other SWF sites listed at:

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