Sunset This Evening 05 October 2012

Wolfe_IRE

Red Sky At Night Shephard's Delight.

Tonight's sky was certainly red and orange and yellow....

Tomorrow's weather forecast is very promising for Ireland and this evening's skies certainly lived up to the saying.

Here are a few pics from West Clare this eve. Some interesting wave-like cloud formations. Maybe you might know what they are and how they form Su Campu?

eskimocat

I have been searching and the closest thing I can find is stratocumulus undulatus, perhaps submit it to the Irish cloud appreciation society for verification?

Calibos

And heres me and several others posting our sunset pics in the Pictures forum for fear of getting into trouble with the powers that be

Su Campu

Yes, it looks like stratocumulus undulatus, although the Sc has more of a stratus appearance than the more patchy stratocumulus. Shannon Airport was reporting 3/8 stratocumulus at 5,000 ft and 6/8 altocumulus translucidus at 15,000 ft at the time the pictures were taken (1800 UTC). The angle of the setting sun would have been such that it would have fully illuminated all of the altocumulus, therefore the partial illumination shown in the photos was on the stratocumulus layer.

There was a 110 knot jet streak over Ireland at the time, with some moderate turbulence to lower levels, as shown in the aviation sigwx chart. This would have generated windshear which caused undulations in the relatively stable boundary layer upper limit, as shown by the presence of stratocumulus in the first place.

Wolfe_IRE

Thanks a lot, Su. The wavy formations were in fact more or less positioned over Shannon. I took the pics facing to my southeast in the direction of Shannon, located about 18 miles away.

Allround Predator

The sky was like that tonight in Dublin as well!

Su Campu

Wolfe_IRE wrote: »

Thanks a lot, Su. The wavy formations were in fact more or less positioned over Shannon. I took the pics facing to my southeast in the direction of Shannon, located about 18 miles away.

30 minutes later (at 1830 UTC) Shannon's metar lost the Sc layer altogether, holding onto the Ac at 15,000 ft.

EINN 051800Z 26003KT 9999 FEW015 SCT050 BKN150 11/09 Q1008 NOSIG=
EINN 051830Z 25004KT 9999 FEW022 BKN150 10/09 Q1008 NOSIG=

redsteveireland

Around the same time I believe I spotted some Kelvin helmholtz clouds over Galway.
Similar to this http://cloudappreciationsociety.org/collecting/giselle-goloy/ but not as clear. I took a picture but I'm on the mobile so can't upload it.

Iancar29

Really redsteveireland?!.... one of the few cloud types ive still yet to witness!! ..

redsteveireland

Iancar29 wrote: »

Really redsteveireland?!.... one of the few cloud types ive still yet to witness!! ..

I had to pull in the car to try and get a picture, regrettably only with my phone.
They were quiet hard to make out as they were not backed by a clear sky like that link above.

Hammer Archer

Iancar29 wrote: »

Really redsteveireland?!.... one of the few cloud types ive still yet to witness!! ..

I've seen a good few around UCD. Usually they're very difficult to spot unless you're actually looking in detail at the clouds. A friend got a picture of them earlier this year
http://mathsci.ucd.ie/met/mcc-gallery.html
First picture in the gallery.

Aiel

As someone whos been lucky enough to see my fair share of lovely sunsets over Galway Bay i have to say yesterday evening's ranked up there with the best of them.Pity ive no camera at the moment.

Harps

I got a quick shot on the phone just after the sun set, the cloud boundary was right overhead with the edge and underside illuminated by the sun. Looked better with the sun still in the sky obviously but it was still a great view

planetX

redsteveireland wrote: »

Around the same time I believe I spotted some Kelvin helmholtz clouds over Galway.
Similar to this http://cloudappreciationsociety.org/collecting/giselle-goloy/ but not as clear. I took a picture but I'm on the mobile so can't upload it.

just wondering are these the above - I took it around 7pm last night, north galway.






I also took some pictures of some strange clouds early in the day - will post in cloud pics, would love an explanation!

Deep Easterly

planetX wrote: »

just wondering are these the above - I took it around 7pm last night, north galway.
I also took some pictures of some strange clouds early in the day - will post in cloud pics, would love an explanation!

I would say the cloud in the foreground is Stratocumulus virga (St vir) as there are visible precipitation trails beneath the main cloud that seem to have been caught up in a strong wind at that level. The cloud in the background looks like Stratocumulus undulatus (St un) as Su mentioned above that seem to be occurring beneath a layer of Altostratus (As), though not overly sure about that due to tone of light.

eskimocat

Iancar29 wrote: »

Really redsteveireland?!.... one of the few cloud types ive still yet to witness!! ..

Iancar, if you are ever about the north west, have a good look around Collooney, I have managed to spot them several times, perhaps its something to do with the environment, as they are typically in the same spot!! They are one of my favourites. They dissipate so fast though, usually by the time I find somewhere to pull in to take a photo, they have degraded beyond recognition!