Warren's Week in Review August 10, 2018

This week showers and sunsets where the stars of my week in review. Had a great weekend going to the Atlanta United match, cloud watching and spending time with family. Watching and dodging showers was also a consistent theme this week with many evenings being rewarded with a phenomenal sunset. 

CW WX Detective S1, E1

Introducing

Chris Warren, Weather Detective

At any given moment, the sky is giving us little clues as to what is going on in what is an infinitely complex atmosphere. Finding and identifying those clues is one of my favorite things about the weather. Sometimes the sky is obvious, other times it is a mystery. A towering cumulonimbus in the plains or the stratus clouds associated with the marine layer along the California coast are often pretty straight forward, but not always.

The atmosphere is a fluid, so there is constant movement whether we can see it in real time or not. Putting the images in motion with video or time-lapse photography takes atmospheric investigation to a whole new level. It's like pulling back the curtain to a complex stage performance.  

One of the things that drew me to the field of meteorology is my curiosity and drive to solve the mystery of what we see in the sky. I love to look at weather images and then do my best to explain why and how the clouds formed or highlight what else the clouds may be telling us about the atmosphere. This is why I like to think of myself as a sort of weather detective.

 

For my very first installment of Chris Warren Weather Detective, I look at the north Georgia sky around sunset on the last Friday of June, 2018. 

2017 Weather Highlights

The First Week of Spring

Sunset and Storms

The new season begins with a nice mix of weather. On the first day of spring we are happy to officially welcome back sunset season. One of my favorite technological advancements over the past few years have been the easy to use panorama feature on my phone (I'll get into time-lapse and slo-mo later).  This pano is a reminder to always look behind you when watching the sunset. Often the sunlight will hit high clouds above the opposite horizon. 

Of course the highlight of the evening is the sun itself.

The next day storms were expected and looking at the visible satellite before leaving work got my hopes up for some storm shots at sunset. 

The sky was a bit messy and blown out at sunset. 

The storms did come. They arrived after sunset for the first great light show of the season. The lightning was frequent enough at first to use regular video and then I switched to the slo-mo feature on my phone. It takes a long time to find the lighting in slo-mo video and then after a rough edit, I slowed down some of the clips even more. Here is the finished product from about a half hour of storms. 

After a great light show, the end of the week brought a nice sundog and another great sunset. 

Spring has begun! 

2016 Weather Highlights

Some of my favorite time lapse videos so far came in 2016. Some planned and some not. The compilation starts with a building cumulus cloud that eventually rains itself out. This was pure luck. I set up the camera hoping to get a nice sunset but instead was treated to the life cycle of a shower. Another clip I was able to plan, this is near the end of the video when I saw a snow shower heading my way and I was able to get the camera in place just in time. 

I was also fortunate to travel to some special places this past year from the Caribbean to Europe and across America so I added a few of those clips as well. 

Enjoy!

I'm looking forward to 2017 with a lot more videos, pictures and posts! 

Happy New Year! 

Almost Time Lapse Time

As 2016 comes to a close, I am compiling my favorite time lapse videos of the year. Here is my favorite from July in the greater Atlanta area. I was hoping to capture a sunset, instead I got a pleasant surprise. The building cumulus cloud eventually rains itself out. 



Here are the Atlanta weather highlights from last year.



Highlights from 2016 coming soon...

Spring in Georgia

Temperatures in the 80s with showers and occasional thunderstorms. Spring in Georgia. Look to the sky and the horizon for building clouds and storms, a feast for weather hungry eyes. 

After the storms pass it may feel steamy or cooler. Sometimes both. The addition of moisture to the modest valleys where the cool waters of the Chattahoochee river flow is the perfect place to see the clouds that form on the ground, otherwise known as fog.  

And finally, after the sun gives all it can to fuel those showers and storms, it says goodnight as the clouds slowly deflate into the darkening sky. 

Spring in Georgia. 

Clouds on the Wing

This was a flight out of Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson International Airport on the morning of Saturday, August 9^th.  I watched arriving planes coming out of the clouds and it looked like their wings were on fire, completely covered in smoke. That of course, was not the case. The planes were making clouds. When my flight took off I started recording with my iphone and it started just before I hit record.  Watch the wing carefully you can’t see the entire wing until after the cloud clears as the plane passes through the low cloud layer. 

 

Basically what is happening here is the water vapor in the very humid air condenses because as the air speeds up over the top part of the wing it leads to lower pressure and thus cooler air. The air is cooled enough to reach the dew point forming a cloud.

Storm From The Sky

Flying south past a storm somewhere over South Carolina or Georgia. Looking east.

I took the picture above with my iPhone camera on the pano setting.

 The top of the storm is somewhat obscured but there was plenty of definition in the lower part.

After the Spring Rain

It was a great Sunday to take a closer look after the rain. 

Interesting to see how the surface of the leaves interacted with the water. Some were completely covered with drops and others had just a few.  

Natural Sand Fence

While spending time on sand dunes on the Outer Banks of North Carolina I noticed an obvious example of a wind break or a natural sand fence. 

The grass slows the wind allowing the finer grains of sand to settle on the leeward side of the plant. 
You can think of it as nature's own sand fence. Sand fences are used to manage where sand is deposited, keeping it out of areas like roads or keeping it in areas like beaches to help control erosion. 

SEA to ATL

This is a picture I took flying back to Atlanta from Seattle. It shows a contrail from a plane during a December sunset.



This was a very unique situation where I was able to see a contrail from three sides. Usually when most people see contrails it is from the ground looking up. In this case I saw it as our plane approached it and then from behind and finally from the other side... by the time I got my camera ready we were flying away from it.



Same flight just outside of Seattle and just above the low clouds surrounding the city and Mt. Rainier.



You can see the snow blowing off the top of the mountain with the stronger winds at higher elevation.



This is a picture I took a couple days before flying back to Atlanta. The Argosy coming back to the Kirkland dock.

Fall in Atlanta

Here are some fall pictures I took while on a little nature walk. Incidentally the trail head is only about one hundred yards away from work. The leaves change very slowly, so the fall season is a slow process. I’m told spring is similar in that trees and flowers blossom at varying rates making the season feel longer.



So far, the wildlife I have encountered has been reserved to birds and insects both of which I saw on this walk.




The Cardinal adds some vibrant color to an already active scene.




This is the Chattahoochee river. It was definitely muddy when I first started working during the last week in September when record rain pounded Atlanta. On this day, it had me dreaming of a nice summer day along the banks.

Heat Wave

We have had ten days in a row of above normal temperatures. This includes six days at 90 or warmer along with the all time record at Sea-Tac last Wednesday of 103.

The bright spot to the heat wave has to be the sunsets. I took this picture last week but with the smoke from recent fires on the Olympic Peninsula the sunsets have continued to impress.




This picture is from the hottest day every recorded at Sea-Tac. I was working that day and it was amazing to walk out from the air conditioned weather center on to the roof garden and feel the contrast. It was like a whole different world.



At the same time we had thunderstorms building over the Cascades as seen from the roof garden looking over Dexter Avenue.

Sound to San Juans

Now that the temperatures are soaring across the northwest I am dreaming of being back on the water. I spent some time on the water with my folks during my weekend. On Wednesday they picked me up after work on Lake Union, went through the locks and stayed at Shilshole Marina. It was nice to watch the sunset over the Olympics on a warm evening.




The next night we stayed in Port Townsend and then headed for Friday Harbor on Friday morning. We ran into some pretty thick fog crossing the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Visibility ranged from about a mile to 100 feet at times. The fog was pretty thick but shallow. There was fog all around but we had blue sky overhead, it was like being in an arena.





It was warm Saturday morning in Friday Harbor as the sun rose on the eastern sky just north of Mt. Baker.



I had to work that night so I flew back on Kenmore Air and took this shot looking back over Shaw Island below and San Juan Island to on the left. The day already had a tropical feel and the clouds in the sky reminded me of the moisture in the atmosphere that would eventually help feed that evening's thunderstorms.

CLEAR NIGHT

This is the view from the roof garden at KING5 looking at the Space Needle and the moon on a clear night in Seattle.



I really like my camera. I took this picture about an hour later without a tripod.



Skies cleared out today as high pressure began building over the region. Clear skies tonight will lead to a chilly morning but we will see plenty of sunshine on Saturday with highs in the 70s.

CHANGES ON THE HORIZON

The majority of our weather comes from the west and today if you looked to the west you could see it coming. I took this picture around noon. Notice how the sky is sort of split in two. There was blue on the top part and white below. It made a pretty clear line in the sky.



The orange dot on the satellite image is about where I took the picture in Kirkland. It is looking across lake Washington at the city of Seattle. I drew an orange line on the satellite image where I believe to be the front edge of the clouds in the previous picture. The thin clouds to the east of the orange line are also visible in the previous picture.



Some of the thin clouds were thick enough to produce a halo around the sun. As expected the rest of the clouds moved in later in the day consuming the blue sky. These clouds are ahead of a weak weather system that is expected to bring Seattle at least a little bit of rain Wednesday.

MORE TRAVEL PICS

I spent a couple days in Madrid and having just arrived ready for a vacation Madrid’s El Retiro Park was a great place to grab a late afternoon siesta. This was the view from where I enjoyed a little rest and relaxation.



Watching the moon grow during my trip was great and a reminder of how wonderful the weather had been. This is the moon over Cordoba with part of the Roman Bridge in the foreground.




Here is another shot of the moon. This time I was sitting at an outdoor table in a plaza in Tarifa when I noticed the white moon nestled in the blue sky behind a yellow tiled building.



The sun was warm for futbol in Sevilla. Check out the top right corner of this picture. Notice the walls on each side of the section with police lining the isles of the visiting team. I am pretty sure this was for the their protection. It was very obvious this sport is serious business in Spain.

SPANISH SUNSHINE

Over the past couple of weeks I was missing out on the Seattle sunshine but I was fortunate to be traveling across the wonderful country of Spain. I enjoyed the great people and very pleasant weather.

I spent some time in Madrid and Barcelona, but I seem to be most captivated by the smaller towns. In Toledo some of the narrow lanes had canvas stretched out overhead to provide a little relief from the midday sunshine.



Tarifa in the southernmost point in Spain is famous for its wind. Kitesurfers swarm the beaches in the summer. This kitesurfer was harnessing wind on the Atlantic Ocean. Behind the land in the distance are the Mediterranean and the Strait of Gibraltar.



I took a day trip to Tangier, Morocco from Tarifa and enjoyed the blue sky behind the whitewashed buildings.




And a perfect end to the day in Ibiza.