As the temperature slowly dipped from its sultry peak of 35°C, we were sat out having another barbecue. But the clouds were telling us that we would soon get some relief from the sweltering temperature of recent; that we would soon be taking our deserts indoors.
Many people imagine clouds as vapour, steam flouting in the sky, but in reality each one is made of billions of droplets of liquid water or ice crystals too small to fall to earth. Their shape, size and appearance tell a story about the ever changing atmosphere.
On hot days, hot moist air (which we have in plentiful supply during a Cornish summer) rises rapidly in the atmosphere creating towering cumulonimbus clouds reaching many kilometres high. When the air reaches a place called the tropopause it can go higher, so spreads sideways making an anvil like head to the cloud. The ice crystals start to fall to earth. Where they meet rising are they can create these unusual undulating clouds called mammatus clouds. This is what I saw on Friday that alerted me to the impending storm.
Soon, the downdraft, (a strong wind caused a those falling ice crystals) was blowing over glasses, lifting up table mats and chair cushions, and we were forced to head inside. Our reward? Spectacular lightning and infinite inspiration.
Atlantic Storm
#ForgedInTheStorm
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