My day had begun holding my hot cup of French Rose tea as I exited the front door to sit outside at 6:30 a.m. This is usually my normal routine as I wait for the city to collect the trash on Mondays so that I can retrieve my bin from the alley. Until that time comes around I sit back and enjoy the peace, watching scurrying squirrels, listening to the different songs of birds, and my favorite, watching the clouds floating by. But wait! Something's amiss, different, as I lean back from the sudden movement forward in my seat. The clouds, the clouds are going the wrong way? I shake my head and squint my eyes shut and open them. I can see the sun's rays from the east outlining the billowing clouds what I consider now as the backside of them. Why? I feel so perplexed. Could this have anything to do with the eclipse? and why do the clouds have a grayest tint on them? I need to know the answer. Google explains as follows: The answer is wind shear. The atmosphere is layered, like a good cake. Every time you climb into a different layer, you encounter new winds moving at a new speed or new direction. Any time the wind changes speed or direction with height, it's called wind shear. May 16, 2017 I'm guessing the use of the word 'climb' as if you're in an airplane or something airborne that rises and I understand that but I wouldn't use it in comparison to a cake layer; for me I would use the word 'dig' but that wouldn't align with the explanation. I'm just saying. All in all, I learned something new today.
It IS fascinating to discover that the wind changes direction multiple times as you rise from the ground. I think I first learned this when reading about hot air balloons. They can change direction by rising/falling to catch whichever jet stream (if that's the proper word) is heading where they want to go. They change altitude a number of times during a given trip, hop-scotching from one strata to another..they don't just Float & Hope. You must have a pretty restricted view of the sky, @Von Jones, to have noticed this. The clouds must have been traveling a different path in the opening you usually view them through.
It's interesting to research something you learned knew. For a better understanding and my curiosity I did just that. From sources across the web Featured snippet from the web Wind shear is defined as a wind direction and/or speed change over a vertical or horizontal distance. It is significant when it causes changes to an aircraft's headwind or tailwind such that the aircraft is abruptly displaced from its intended flight path and substantial control action is required to correct it. What are three 3 causes of wind shear? Wind shear is the change in speed and direction of wind over a short distance. It is most often caused by microbursts (really small yet intense downbursts from thunderstorms), temperature inversions (when the temperature of the air gets colder as you get closer to the surface of the Earth), and surface obstructions. This brought to my mind William Anders who died from his plane crashing. I wonder if it would even be considered as a possible cause of the plane crashing more than his age and such.
I bet most of us have been on flights that were about ready to touch down, and they suddenly aborted and climbed rapidly. Wind sheer will slam you into the ground like a cheap pro wrestler.
With two trees bordering a panoramic view above two houses across the street from me. I consider it my weather channel sometimes. The airport is north and a local hospital is south of us and I always cringe when planes and helicopters are flying low when passing but it's amazing to see. I can't think of it now but I use to sing a little jingle to my grandbabies when they were little as the planes passed no matter how high they were in the sky.
Flight is fascinating. There are a couple of small airports near me (one in my county and another in the county north of me.) A couple of weeks ago some vintage craft must have been traveling to an event, and I was right in their flight path. There were over a dozen that flew right overhead. A few hours later, they flew back from whence they came. I've flown a bit in my career and never lost sight of the miracle that most of us have available to us. And how do we show our gratitude? We whine about the peanuts. I was on a small commuter plane returning from vacation in the Carribbean headed to Florida, and like some little kid, I was taking pictures of the clouds.
You know, pictures just don't do justice when you actually see it. Sharing a picture and explaining the awesome affect you experienced while taking the shot is mute to someone else unless they have experienced it as well. We say, 'Man, oh, man!' they say, 'uh huh.'