Somethin is a changin in the sky in my neck of the woods. Either that or I'm just suddenly more observant. Yet, I don't think that is it because I've always been a sky watcher. I took this picture sitting in traffic the other day. So, it may be a little grainy, but look at those clouds!
The clouds are not east coast clouds. Suddenly we've got the clouds of Big Sky Montana and the Nebraska plains hovering above us. These aren't little wisp cirrus clouds that have just barely made it over small mountain ranges. These aren't the nimbostratus grey flat oppressive boring clouds that just make for an overcast day.
These are the mammoth
cumulonimbus thunderstorm clouds that make statements in the sky. Sure, there are some cumulus and Cirrus clouds mixed in just as supporting cast, but there have been some amazingly large clouds coming through here on a daily basis.That has been one thing I've missed around here all these years - amazing sky formations and broad expanses of universe. Now, it is here. I don't know what that means. Has the weather pattern changed that drastically?
Either way, I am rather pleased. I don't have to fly out west to get my fix of wide open space and glorious sky views.
For some reason, these are those experiences that remind me that there is a God. I remember taking a walk one day a few months ago and the scene before my eyes was so heavenly I felt like I was in a movie watching the universe revolve around my place of standing. It was, well, "glorious."
In the Midwest the onset of the cumulonimbus usually meant a late afternoon thunderstorm that would break up the hot muggy days of summer, and also meant that it was even more critical your family remembered to pick you up from your summer job. Yes, I've been forgotten before - one time at 11:00 p.m. at night, before cell phones, and with a thunderstorm raging. I started walking and praying for my life that I wasn't a target of the skies.
Then there are the clouds of a bad day in Michigan where the clouds were that light brown color of A&W root beer foam and a weird chemical smell loomed in the air. Hmmm. I'm still wondering if something at Dow Chemical caused that situation. It was eery.
Family trips across the United States in the beat up station wagon provided unlimited opportunities to survey the skies, but the best views I remember actually come from the airplane. Lucky for me, we flew a lot when we were young and I still remember wanting the window seat to peer out the window at the friendly skies. Yes, it is fun to see how many people in any given neighborhoods have pools, or watch as the grid work patterns start to emerge on the farmers fields of the far west of the Midwest, but truly magnificent are those moments where the plane shudders and makes it's way above the really thick clouds and suddenly you are in the eye of the cloud (so to speak) with the sun pouring down and the huge billows of fluffiness below you and forming a wall in different directions. I often imagined jumping out of the plane and landing on those billows because it looked like it would feel like a bed made of millions of cotton balls. It was awe inspiring to me then and I become fixated when I see it now. Only problem is now I find the windows so low that I have to be in a row by myself so I can situate myself over two seats to get the right angle to be able to even see out of the window. Growing up definitely gives us different views and not all good!
Well, enough about clouds. I've got a day job and this was not the reason I couldn't sleep last night, but has somehow morphed into a huge post.
We'll see what the skies provide today...
If you are a little interested, and don't already know about clouds, here's a kids link that I found that is a fairly simple and straightforward explanation of the different clouds types.
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