Ac cumulogenitus
/ 0 Comments / in Altocumulus, Medium LevelsThis panoramic photo shows a variety of altocumulus (Ac) clouds most notably the Ac floccus with virga on the left side of the photo and Ac cumulogenitus with virga just behind the near full moon. The clouds were on the eastern side of Malta after a line of bad weather had passed over the Islands as indicated by the solid black line in the surface pressure chart on the fourth thumbnail. The first thumbnail shows a chaotic mass of ac castellanus clouds with various cumuliform turrents just before a mid-level thunderstorm approached the Island whilst the second thumbnail is a panoramic photo of an isolated thundery shower as seen from the Grand Harbour. This was associated with a weak upper-level trough with a cold centre just on top of the Maltese Islands generating instability as per third and fifth thumbnails indicating the weather sounding and upper-level charts respectively. The sixth thumbnail is the visible satellite imagery confirming that the mass of altocumulus and mid-level cumulonimbus clouds were the direct result of this very small upper-level cold airmass. The storms had remained weak and disorganized all the time with a total average rainfall of 4mm.
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!