Fall from the sky
I’m always happy to hear people talking about the sky. The other day I was standing in a lineup at the grocery store when I overheard the lady ahead of me say to the clerk “…you can tell winter is coming just by the look of the clouds.”
Great observation and accurate, as well. While all cloud types can exist in all seasons, the clouds can take on a different look according to the temperature of the air above the ground.
Last week, the cloud bases or bottoms were closer to the ground – something that’s quite common in the fall.
The story of a cloud begins at ground level.
Sunlight heats the ground, and the warm ground heats the air next to it. The hot air, now less dense and lighter than the air above it, rises. As it rises, the air expands, cools off and condensation begins. As the minuscule droplets grow, they become visible and a cloud appears. All clouds are made up of billions and billions of tiny water droplets or ice crystals.
Back to the fall clouds: cold air cannot hold as much moisture as warm air can. In the fall, there’s still a fair amount of heat coming off the water and the land. The warmer air released from the soil and the water rises and comes into contact with the colder air above. The level at which the air reaches a point where it condenses to water vapour is where the base of the cloud sits. The flat bottom of the clouds marks the point at which the dew point and the air temperature are equal.
So on those fresh fall days when the wind whips around to the north, the clouds are telling you that fall is in the air.