Winter Sunrise is a photograph by Rob Hemphill which was uploaded on December 3rd, 2019.
Winter Sunrise
This image is unedited. and taken with a Nikon D850 DSLR camera.... more
by Rob Hemphill
Title
Winter Sunrise
Artist
Rob Hemphill
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
This image is unedited. and taken with a Nikon D850 DSLR camera.
Saw this sky yesterday morning after a heavy nights frost. The sky was a classic mackerel sky which is a common term for a sky with rows of cirrocumulus or altocumulus clouds displaying an undulating, rippling pattern similar in appearance to fish scales. This is caused by high altitude atmospheric waves.
This usually means that rain is on its way, especially here in Ireland!
Cirrocumulus appears almost exclusively with cirrus some way ahead of a warm front and is a reliable forecaster that the weather is about to change. When these high clouds progressively invade the sky and the barometric pressure begins to fall, precipitation associated with the disturbance is likely about 6 to 12 hours away.
A thickening and lowering of cirrocumulus into middle-étage altostratus or altocumulus is a good sign the warm front or low has moved closer and it may start raining within less than six hours.
The old rhymes "Mackerel sky, not twenty-four hours dry" and "Mares' tails and mackerel scales make lofty ships to carry low sails" both refer to this long-recognized phenomenon.
Other phrases in weather lore take mackerel skies as a sign of changeable weather. Examples include "Mackerel sky, mackerel sky. Never long wet and never long dry", and "A dappled sky, like a painted woman, soon changes its face".
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Featured in the following FAA Groups:
"No Place Like Home" 12/17/2019
"Your Very Best Photography" 12/16/2019
"Arts Fantastic World" 12/10/2019
"Nikon Full Frame Cameras" 12/08/2019
"Sky Shots" 12/08/2019
"Images That Excite You!" 12/07/2019
"The Top 50 Features" 12/06/2019
"The Road To Self Promotion" 12/05/2019
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Uploaded
December 3rd, 2019