Jack and Katrina's Place

I know you've seen a few sunrises on this site, but I took these over Easter weekend, and thought I 'd share them with you. These cloudscapes have been particularly dramatic because of the unsettled autumn weather. There is quite a strong Sou'Easterly blowing and the layers of cloud are stacking up over the Tararua ranges to the north east of us.

I have often wondered how the fluffy clouds form so early in the morning when there is no solar heating to drive convective process (or the bubbling up of air!) The reason I discovered is related to the wind. The strong easterly is rolling off Tinakori Hill (just out of shot to the right), and the resulting turbulence is mixing up the layer of very cold air that has formed near the ground overnight with the moisture-carrying easterly. As the cold air touches the moist air clouds form like whitecaps (grey caps?) on the waves of air. These little fluffy clouds are best avoided in small planes, the effect is like running through rapids in a speed boat, thump thump bang, and then maybe hhhhurrrgh!!!! As the folks on the Beech 1900 in the centre of one of the photos are discovering.