My Corner of the World: Big Clouds

There were dramatic clouds overhead yesterday, over the bog across the road. They were heading to the south, which means colder weather. I'm not ready to turn on the heat yet! I made a time lapse and GIF of the action overhead. We had about an hour of rumbly thunder but there was no rain. The bog under the clouds is a rich environment where I constantly see beaver, otter, deer, moose and bear. Of course, there are many bird species there also, but they are difficult to see! 

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Skywatch Friday: Cumulus humilis

Cumulus humilis (Cu hum)

Last Friday, I said I was going to learn about cloudspotting (that's what they call the process of identifying clouds). By Monday, I decided to quit. It's hard! There are no people, like at iNaturalist or Bugguide, to confirm your photo IDs and give advice.

However, Lucy and I were sitting out late Wednesday afternoon and lovely clouds were slowly moving overhead. I decided to try time-lapse on my iPhone; and I loved the result!

I sent the video to Adobe Creative Cloud, which is free. (I think it is free. I have not seen any subscription charges at my bank. Sometimes these subscriptions seem to slither into my life without me knowing.) 

I signed into Adobe and then created a new project by clicking the big purply-blue + button at the top left. Then I chose "Convert to GIF" under the video choices. I uploaded my video, chose "medium" size (the default size), and landscape (because the video was landscape), downloaded it, and here we have it! By the way, I have made one other GIF of Lucy and Nell and it was simply awful because I chose large. It is my shame on Twitter. 

After that success, I had the patience to try to identify the clouds. They are Cumulus humilis. I think. They match the description and the photos that I have linked here.

I'm now motivated to try again for next week. Learning happens in frustrating fits and starts. It's a good lesson for me to remember when my own students return to school late this month.

During my research for this, I learned that you can join the community science project Cloudspotting on Mars and identify Martian clouds from photos from the rovers. 

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