I’d like to thank Forecasting Kitsap reader “Shawn” for bringing this subject up. I had read an article about these rare clouds a week or so ago and intended on doing a post about it but never got around to doing it.
The above photo was taken by Dr. Dale Ireland who happens to be quite famous in these parts for his stunning weather photos and time lapse videos. All of his productions are captured along the Hood Canal facing the Olympics. The particular image you see above captures one of nature’s rarest meteorological occurances: noctilucent clouds.
Nocti–wha???
Noctilucent (meaning “night shining” in Latin) clouds are the highest clouds in the atmosphere, located 50 miles above the Earth . They are very finicky, only occuring in the right conditions during a specific time of year—summer. A more thorough explanation can be found here .
To see the cool (although short) webcam by Dr. Ireland, click here and to see his home site, click here .
See if you can spot them as the sun sets/rises and if you do, be sure to send pictures to me at forecastingkitsap@live.com!
In other news, the heat is still in the forecast and the National Weather Service has issued a SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT highlighting this threat:
SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SEATTLE WA
432 PM PDT WED JUL 22 2009
WAZ001-503>519-240000-
SAN JUAN COUNTY-WESTERN WHATCOM COUNTY-SOUTHWEST INTERIOR-
EAST PUGET SOUND LOWLANDS-WESTERN SKAGIT COUNTY-EVERETT AND
VICINITY-
SEATTLE/BREMERTON AREA-TACOMA AREA-ADMIRALTY INLET AREA-
HOOD CANAL AREA-LOWER CHEHALIS VALLEY AREA-OLYMPICS-
EASTERN STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA-WESTERN STRAIT OF JUAN DE FUCA-
NORTH COAST-CENTRAL COAST-WEST SLOPES NORTHERN CASCADES AND
PASSES-
WEST SLOPES CENTRAL CASCADES AND PASSES-
432 PM PDT WED JUL 22 2009
…HOT WEATHER BEGINNING THIS WEEKEND AND LASTING INTO NEXT WEEK…
THE HOTTEST WEATHER OF THE YEAR IS LIKELY TO OCCUR THIS
WEEKEND
AND EARLY NEXT WEEK. HIGH TEMPERATURES WILL BE IN THE 85 TO 95
RANGE. OVERNIGHT LOWS WILL BE IN THE 60S. ALL AREAS OF WESTERN
WASHINGTON COULD BE AFFECTED.
THE FIRST REALLY HOT DAY WILL BE SATURDAY OR SUNDAY. AT THIS
TIME
MODELS PREDICT THE HOT WEATHER COULD LAST INTO WEDNESDAY OR
BEYOND.
UNLIKE MANY PREVIOUS HOT SPELLS…THIS ONE COULD ALSO AFFECT
THE
COAST AND OTHER PLACES NEAR THE WATER. ALSO IT IS RARE TO HAVE
MANY HOT DAYS IN A ROW IN WESTERN WASHINGTON…BUT THIS HEAT WAVE
COULD LAST SEVERAL DAYS.
WESTERN WASHINGTON IS HAVING A DRY SUMMER…AND NO RAIN IS IN
THE
FORECAST FOR THE NEXT WEEK OR SO. FIRE DANGER WILL INCREASE
DURING
THE HOT WEATHER. THERE IS ALSO A RISK OF AIR STAGNATION DURING
THIS PERIOD.
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WILL ISSUE MORE STATEMENTS ABOUT
THIS
EVENT OVER THE COMING DAYS
I’ll be on a conference call with the National Weather Service along with many other weather junkies tomorrow afternoon and I’ll report on what new information I get from the call tomorrow evening.
Take care!
Matthew Leach
Forecasting Kitsap
7 DAY FORECAST
