Clouds of the Day - Cirrus on Display - Monday, November 6, 2023
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Cirrus fibratus (center to upper right) are ice crystals being stretched out into long streaks by winds aloft. Thicker Altocumulus are in the upper left and thin Cirrostratus with denser Cirrus spissatus precipitating ice crystals is in the lower center bottom.
This is a chaotic sky at its finest. This photo includes CONTRAILS along with bands of Cirrus fibratus perpendicular to the CONTRAILS. Thin Altostratus in in the upper right. The upper winds are blowing from right to left
The above photo is primarily of Cirrus fibratus. Falling ice crystals are visible as a “haze” covering the fibratus in the left half of the photo. Other fibratus or Cirrostratus is in the lower right behind either Cirrocumulus or thin Altocumulus. In the center foreground are Altocumulus in denser clumps. There appears to be streamers of ice crystals falling away from the patch to the lower center.
Streaks of Cirrus and Cirrus fibratus are streaming parallel to strong upper winds above lower fall streaks falling away from dissipating denser cloud heads. The cloud heads are becoming diffuse as the precipitation weakens.
An altostratus layer overlies Altostratus undulatus clouds below..
Cirrus fibratus which are hairlike cloud fingers, precipitating Cirrus spissatus (dense clusters), and altostratus (far right sheet cloud) indicate three different processes that are forming the clouds in these photos.
This was a sight. There were five CONTRAILS occupying much of the sky in these unusual formations. The right-hand photo shows three curving CONTRAILS that are lower than a of patch of Cirrus. The CONTRAILS show convective turbulence which precipitated ice crystals.
The photo above includes a CONTRAIL (Condensation Trail) with ice crystal streamers (fall streaks) trailing to the left. The denser CONTRAIL is precipitating the ice crystals.
The cirrus above are Cirrocumulus floccus which are clusters of puffy clouds trailing precipitating ice crystals. The ice crystals are falling away from the denser heads of the cloud clusters where the ice precipitation (ice crystals) are streaming away to the left. The precipitation is forming in the heads where upward motion is strongest. The streamers look like strands of hair which are a classic Cirrus cloud. After the cloud heads stop precipitating all that is left are the streamers which gradually disappear through sublimation (ice crystals turn from a solid to vapor in the cold upper air.