A panoramic photo of altostratus clouds leaving the Islands which formed through the thinning of nimbostratus clouds following the passage of weak fronts as evident on the surface pressure chart in the third thumbnail. Hence the photographed cloud is known as ‘Altostratus translucidus nimbostratomutatus’ because when the photo was taken it thinned even more sufficiently to reveal the position of the sun unlike the opacus subspecies which are thicker. This cloud is also visible in the precipitation map in the fourth thumnbail. The second thumbnail is the weather sounding showing lots of moisture at mid-levels but without instability favouring stratiform cloud formation just as the fronts were passing over the Maltese Islands. The first thumbnail is the photo of nimbostratus clouds leaving the Islands with the precipitation shaft seen in the left hand side of the photo.