Summer Clouds

Dave Thurlow, Host

Summer Clouds

Why, because cloud-sized air bubbles near the ground are all rising with roughly the same temperature and moisture. They rise to a height where some of the moisture is forced to condense and form a cloud. This height is the same for each bubble on a given day. Those bubbly cloud tops that look like cauliflower form when drier air muscles in on the cloud's sides, eroding them away. This leads to a complicated pattern of rising and sinking air pockets all around the cloud, giving it the fine-scale bubbles that look like cauliflower florets.

If conditions are right, cauliflower cumulus clouds may build into thunderstorms. If the cloud edges look soft, the friendly cloud is evaporating quickly and the storm may be weakening. But, if the cauliflower looks crisp, it's a sign that the cloud is only a fair-weather friend, with plenty of food for the imagination, and plenty of energy to cook it.

The Weather Notebook is produced by the Mount Washington Observatory in cooperation with New Hampshire Public Radio...funded by The National Science Foundation, and underwritten by Subaru -- the beauty of All-Wheel Drive.

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Soul of the Sky - "Exploring the human side of weather"  NOW AVAILABLE Compiled and edited by: Dave Thurlow & Ralph Adler. North Conway: Mount Washington Observatory, 1999. Paperback, 150 pages.   Soul of the Sky is a different kind of weather book. It's not preoccupied with charting fronts, defining what an isobar is, or trying to get you to memorize the conversion formula from degrees Centigrade to degrees Fahrenheit. Instead, it's a collection that illustrates how the weather can inspire and terrify, connect us and urge us on to new adventures, and invite us to gain a deeper appreciation of how weather and climate affect our everyday lives.