Accepting urban clutter during a graydar alert

A weather forecaster with a poor record, I thought perhaps a change in the weather was headed our way.

However, I took comfort in the old adage: "Red sky at night, shepherds delight." 

Wrong! I think they say 'FAIL' on the webnets these days. A fellow blogger and photographer from afar remarked that hereabouts we are lucky with the light. No argument from me, although dealing with 100% blue sky and searing overhead light brings its own set of problems, not least sunstroke, dehydration, and skin removal for the unwary. I resolved that on the next gray day I would take some pictures no matter what. Those monochrome skies seem to fit more comfortably with urban clutter than the glorious polychromes of sunny days, so the end of the street was a suitable location.

At least it was not raining, although there was a forecast for a 20% chance of showers, so 1 in 5 people should have prepared to be wet later. Where I came from, the weather delivers on its promises: a fresh wind blowing in clouds from the west meant rain and I don't mean maybe. I watched the recent Tour of Britain bicycle race scaling the heights of Honister Pass in the English Lake District: the riders had to pedal uphill on a 25% gradient in the rain with a virtual river of surface water rippling down the road surface. "Traction will be a problem", commentator Hugh Porter remarked dryly. The PolyPeleton blog had a cartoon image of race leaders Dan Martin and Nairo Quintana wearing helmets, face-masks, and snorkels! If you thought that was an unwarranted exaggeration, visit CKingImages.com for real wet-process images of the event.

Hereabouts we have virga, as seen in the next picture—almost inevitably one of the old folks back home seeing those veils of falling rain, would have remarked, "Somebody is getting wet!" Not here: it can rain and nobody gets wet. I still find it to be an unsettling concept that rain can fall but fail to reach the ground. Oh well, it could be worse. No, really, I mean it could be worse literally: Venus has sulphuric acid virga and Mars has snow virga. Wondering if it might snow is one thing, but wondering it might rain sulphuric acid is a whole other dimension.

That Wikipedia virga link also contains the comment: "Virga can produce dramatic and beautiful scenes, especially during a red sunset." I will stay alert later this evening and check if we might get lucky even after an all gray day. Just now, in the late afternoon, there was a flash of lightning and a crash of thunder, so I am not going to hold my breath. The rain has started to fall almost immediately—perhaps I should apologize for that snarky remark about delivering promises, or maybe just stop anthropomorphizing the weather. Oh well, a walk this evening looks unlikely. On the other hand, it's hard for anybody to deny that the sun may not already have sunk below the yardarm…

Until I assembled this post I had not explicitly realized that in the pictures the light from the north—much favored by artists starving in garrets, although probably less favored than three meals a day and a warm bed at night—was harder & colder than the warmer light from the west. I also remembered orange filters for enhancing white clouds back in the days of monochrome film. Surely there is an app for that?

 

--------------------oOo--------------------

The blog author almost never checks emails or comments.