Category Archives: weather

  It is now approaching the maximum of the Sun’s eleven year cycle when the Sun’s poles flip and the solar wind is at its strongest. The collision of the solar wind and the Earth’s magnetic field causes the aurora. … Continue reading →

  I no longer travel much by plane, so my opportunity to see cloudbows and glories is not great. But last week, I flew to the Coast, and for most of the way the plane was above a thick layer … Continue reading →

  The glory is a beautiful phenomenon that is only rarely noticed. Its rarity results from the requirement that your shadow must be cast down onto a cloud in the centre of the glory. Mind you, to see your shadow … Continue reading →

  Last Sunday, I watched something over the Lake that I had not recalled seeing with such clarity before: two different mechanisms for droplet formation from the same source. A decade, or so, ago, I wrote a piece about the … Continue reading →

  A cloudbow is just a rainbow formed by the much smaller droplets found in a cloud or a fog. It is as huge as a rainbow in that it spans nearly a quarter of the sky. But, it is … Continue reading →

  Yesterday, at about noon, there were wave clouds in the sky. I was admiring these when the sun moved over slowly behind one. Then the most marvellous series of colours appeared close around the sun.  The iridescent colours were … Continue reading →