Ci spissatus
/ 0 Comments / in Cirrus, High LevelsA very clean cut-off of cirrus spissatus clouds indicating a frontal system. In fact, the surface pressure chart on the 2nd thumbnail indicated a frontolysis, that is the weakening of a cold front whose position combined perfectly with the high clouds seen from the visible satellite imagery on the 3rd thumbnail. It is not clear whether the observed cloud was initially an isolated upper-level cumulonimbus cloud which would require the addition of `cumulonimbogenitus`. However, no lightning was observed on the lightning satellite imagery at any stage whilst the decaying cold front was approaching the Maltese Islands. The first thumbnail is a photo of exactly the same cloud taken about an hour and a half earlier, indicating that the sun was still visible at the cloud`s leading edge. The weakening cold front still managed to introduce a cooler airmass at altitude after days of intense heat and which produced low-level instability a few days later.
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