BBC theme – Elevated
First posted 12 Jan 2018
I’m falling through a cloud filled sky, through the cumulonimbus, the monster of the atmosphere. Towering up to the tropopause and spreading out like a floating anvil, or a pancake on the ceiling. As I fall, I hit the top and it looks smooth and soft like cloud nine. I fall further into the middle of the cloud and begin to get thrown around, upwards like a rag doll and buffeted all around. Hail stones batter my back and legs and face. I curl up to protect tender flesh from the beating, I begin to fall like a stone and find myself collecting ice and water. I get thrown upwards and repeat the process, around and up and down. It’s freezing cold in here and dark, the cloud is ominous and dangerous.
All of a sudden I find myself elevated and within in a cirrus. It’s wispy like candy floss and very high up in the sky, the ground is a long long way away. As I roll along the cloud I imagine that the strands wrap around me and that I begin to look like a stick of candy floss. Unfortunately, those fluffy wisps of clouds that you can see from the earth are made of tiny ice shards. Its freezing cold up this high. Spiky ice crystals are not very comfortable as a place to rest. Many cirrus start of their cloud life as contrails, the bright white stripes painted by the aircraft spreading out to cover the sky as a hazy lace of cirrus cloud.
I tumble off the cirrus into a slightly more comfortable looking cirrocumulus. The word Cumulus denotes that these high clouds do not look like their straight and sleek cousins the cirrus. They look more feathery and slightly fluffy. They cause the commonly known mackerel sky, patterns of patches of cloud high in the sky that are an omen of changing weather to come.
Inside a Cumulus is like the inside of a minimalist palace. Tumbling white walls and ceilings, and off-white floors. Cumulus are bright and stark against the bright blue backdrop of the sky. Many of them dotted in the sky on a hot sunny day, disappearing towards the horizon. Almost as if they are a housing estate of similar replica houses, each one straining to stand out from the rest, each one unremarkable and no different from the others. Each and every one similar and conforming to the rules. Cumulus clouds look the same from above as they do from below, cotton puffs piled up to form clouds.
But cumulus clouds like to deceive, they look innocent, but they can grow to form the mighty cumulonimbus. They are trying to force their way upwards, they may or may not have enough energy to do so. If they could, they would tower up and rule over all the other little cumulus, in the form of a cumulus congestus. Well, I suppose a cloud has to dream.
Stratocumulus, Altocumulus and Cirrocumulus are all classifications of cumulus-style clouds at different heights in the sky. Strato meaning the lowest level in the atmosphere, alto meaning the middle of the cloud region. Cirro is used to denote the highest level in the atmosphere, and it is where the word cirrus comes from.
One mustn’t forget the magnificent lenticular cloud. Often mistaken for unidentified space craft they are one of the most beautiful clouds that you can spy. At sunset they can light up red and orange and it looks like a disco suspended in the sky. They are clouds that like speed; they form from fast flowing winds that move to and fro as they negotiate their way through the atmosphere. The lenticular might thrive on high wind speed, but it does not move. It is as still as a stone. They look like if you sat on the top of them you could use them as a slide. Convex in shape and beautiful to look at.
As I approach the ground I finally find a place to rest, the thick layer of cloud close to the ground. These layers of clouds are known as stratus, a layer of cloud. It is the humble stratus that causes those days when you think that the sun hasn’t risen and it feels like someone has lowered the ceiling outside. From beneath stratus are oppressive, like a blanket laid over the surface of the earth. I snuggle in for a nap, then I realise you cannot snuggle into any cloud. They are made of tiny water droplets and water vapour. Mostly they are cold and damp. So I tumble down to earth and find myself in the surface bound friend of the clouds, fog.
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