We enjoyed a nice Father's Day barbecue celebration at our home this past Saturday. We celebrated a day early because the weather forecast for Sunday predicted rain, but I should have known better, because it turned out to be a beautiful day on Sunday.
In typical Colorado fashion, the weather was unpredictable!
It made me scroll through the sky photos in my collection since moving to Colorado thirteen years ago...
The Spring and Summer seasons often bring the most amazing cloud formations!
These towering, high, full clouds are called Cumulonimbus Clouds, and when I see them, this is what I think of...
...hail!
The first year we moved to Colorado, we experienced our first large summer hail storm. At first, we thought it was fun, as we had never seen such large hailstones. The streets and lawns looked like they were covered with snow in August. My husband joked that he never thought he'd need to shovel in summer. Fortunately, I thought to go down into our basement and was shocked to see a waterfall of melting hail come pouring in through our window wells. I used almost every towel I owned to mop up that water as it seeped through.
Similar to hail is Grapel -- a new word we learned that first winter. Graupel is precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water freeze on a falling snowflake. It looks and feels like large drops of slushy ice falling from the sky!
A virga, also called a dry storm, is an observable streak or shaft of precipitation that evaporates or sublimates before reaching the ground. It is a new phenomenon to us, and another new weather word we learned.
Of course, we do get our share of thunderstorms. This one was approaching the city of Denver a few summers ago.
In years such as this one, when the West had unusually dry weather with very low snow and rain levels, we worry about lightning strikes causing wildfires, but rain is seen as a blessing for our high desert climate...
...and rainbows are always a welcome sight to see!
Speaking of rainbows, we learned another new weather word when we moved to Colorado...
Iridescent clouds are a diffraction phenomenon caused by small water droplets or small ice crystals individually scattering light. We usually see this in the winter months.
A beautiful assortment of different cloud formations in my neighborhood.
An angel cloud in the sky?
Sunrises and sunsets are reminders that, regardless of the weather, each new day is a blessing.
Happy Summer to all!
Please tell me what new weather words you have learned where you live.
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36 comments:
Amazing cloud photos. I hope you keep free of wild fires this summer.
Happy Monday and have a good week.
I am just after you on the linky
Much love
wow,these are amazing cloud formations and words I have never heard of before. Something new for me today. Thank you. Have a fabulous week. I am visiting you from Monday Morning Blog Club.
What a wonderful Father's Day celebration and isn't it just typical that the predicted rain never comes. What pretty pictures of the sky and those hailstones are crazy!
Wonderful collection of sky photos. I love the clouds, the rainbows, sunrises and sunsets. The hail looks huge. Take care, enjoy your day and the week ahead.
Your Father's Day gathering looked fun and yummy, too, and ALL of your photos are spectacular! The cloud formations, the thunderstorms, the rainbows, the sunsets! All beautiful! Nature is such a gift, isn't it? Thanks for sharing!
I love all your sky photos. Clouds are just amazing to capture! #MMBC
You've had some spectacular sky shots in your years in Colorado. Colorado never fails me when I visit.
Many of those clouds and forms of precipitation were unfamiliar to me. Such lovely photos.
Wow! What amazing cloud and sky photos.
Now here I was always believing Californians had the weirdest, most indecisive weather! Hail!!? Those are huge too, wow! Gorgeous, gorgeous photos of the clouds!
These are fantastic photos, Pat -- and what a remarkable collection of clouds of every kind. Weather is fascinating, isn't it? Sometimes I wonder why we even bother with weather reports, they change so often. Those cloud formation pix are especially gorgeous. And what territory you have to be able to capture them so well!
...I've heard of large hail, but I have never seen in person. A day with a rainbow is indeed a special day, be well.
Thanks for sharing - I like to watch clouds, too.
We get the Lenticular Clouds here; around the mountain Loowit.
And, yes, that 'angel' clouds, does indeed look like an angel.
Have a funtastic week!
It's so beautiful where you live! I love your photos.
Pat,
Thanks so much for stopping by!! Glad you had a nice Father's day...It was the 3rd one without my husband but my son Joe and I still celebrated it with Chinese for dinner...It is hard for my son Jim, the father of the twins, to celebrate it here so even though he works every weekend, he did get to celebrate with his own little family...Grief is a funny thing and people deal with it differently...The clouds are beautiful...And that hail is really something!!
Hugs,
Deb
Debbie-Dabble Blog
Oh the food. Oh the food. I'll be right over.
Love all the sky shots. The clouds the rainbows. Beautiful.
Thank you for joining the Happy Tuesday Blog Hop.
Have a fabulous Happy Tuesday, Pat. ♥
Goosebumps. Unbelievable – such huge hailstones! It’s hard to know what to do to get to safety. The heat here is soaring to over 40°C. We have to expect heat-induced thunderstorms. Rain would be welcome, but we don’t need the accompanying storms and hail.
Thank you for sharing at MosaicMonday
Greetings by Heidrun
I ate more food. Delicious.
Thank you for joining the Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop.
Have a fabulous Wordless Wednesday. ♥
Your Father’s Day barbecue sounded so special.
The photos are breathtaking.
Reading your post instantly made me think of Joni Mitchell’s song “Both Sides Now” … I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now, from up and down… and your collection really captures that feeling of wonder.
Thank you for sharing such beauty and for teaching us new weather words along the way!
Wow! Amazing photos of God's creation. I love those Lenticular Clouds. I've never seen anything like that before.
Wow, those clouds! Spectacular!! I’ve never experienced hail even close to that size. That would be scary!
Great skies.
You have a great selection of cloud photos! Also, you have quite a variety of weather in Colorado. I have heard hail storms in your state can be damaging. Thank you for linking up.
You have every kind of cloudscape in this post. Well done.
Worth a Thousand Words
Such beautiful pictures (although hail really isn't fun). I didn't know you used the word "graupel" in English as well.
What a lovely post, Pat. Your cloud photos are so pretty, and I enjoyed learning some new weather words too! I also loved the family photo from your Father's Day celebrations, and the food looks yummy.
Your sunrises and sunsets are also stunning, and I completely agree that they're a wonderful reminder that each new day is a blessing.
Hope you're having a great weekend. 😊
A fabulous post, beautiful photos, stunning clouds!!! Thank you for sharing! Happy Caturday from Basil and the B Team 🐾😻✨😻🐾
Wow, these cloud formations are incredible! I love learning about virga and graupel through your gorgeous photography.
Lovely to see your cloud photographs ... and yes, I see an angel :)
This past week here in the UK and most of Europe it has been HOT with heatwave conditions ...phew! Hoping for cooler weather soon, with rain clouds, but we shall see.
My good wishes.
All the best Jan
Pat, these Colorado storms are something else. We're near the Colorado Springs area, and these last few days of storm warnings were no joke. In our area, we were able to stay clear of the hail this time around. We are thankful. Your Father's Day BBQ looked wonderful. It looks like everyone had a lovely time. Also, I love the photos you took of the clouds. Beautiful.
Steph@CrazyLittleLovebirds
You sure do have dramatic skies up there in the mountains.
Wow. I know what I'll be humming for the rest of the day.
Amalia
xo
I love looking up at all the cloud formations! And the rainbows are special! Have a wonderful week and thanks so much for your encouraging words my friend! Hugs, Diane
Great post. Sunset images are some of my favorites.
I loved hearing all about the Colorado weather. Texas also has some wild weather patterns and always keeps us on our toes.
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