Monday, April 30, 2012

Hint of Spring

Cirrostratus was on the western horizon at 8:30 am - heralding an approaching system. The cold conveyor belt being drawn into the associated low was relatively weak so that the speed of the approaching low almost balanced the cold inflow. The result was nil wind and a plate glass lake surface giving a near perfect reflection. There was a hint of green in the trees of the far shoreline. The colours and the sky were the attraction for this painting. Note there is no sun glint as the sun is to my back. There is also no "sky glint" as the water was calm. Sometimes the absence of a feature is the clue you need to apply CSI - Creative Scene Investigation.
One band of cirrostratus within the deformation zone had sufficient moisture that the ice crystals wafted down in broad ribbons before sublimating in the drier air below. At the higher layers there were some interesting fingers of cirrus that appeared to be parallel to the southwesterly and apparently divergent upper jet. If you paint what you see, you know it must be correct as the atmosphere has already solved all of the equations of motion.
The sounds of spring provided the sound track. A turkey gobbled nearby and the tree swallows buzzed my head picking off bugs. There were no biting insects yet as the overnight low was a frosty minus 3 Celsius.
Walk away from the easel... before I mess it up!

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