nebulous your allegiance...

spectral growl

false etymologies:  par-helion (sub-sun) or parhe-lion (roar!)

nebulous taxonomy: the feathery beast

apricot blossoms

Apricot-tinged clouds bring up our under-appreciated word of the week:
apricate (v). To bask in the sunlight.

Two fine examples from the OED:

His lordship was wont to recreate himself in this place, to apricate and contemplate.(1697) Aubrey in Halliwell at Toms-of-Bedlam.

Not sunning, but mooning himself—apricating himself in the occasional moonbeams.(1839) T. De Quincey W. Wordsworth and R. Southey in Tait's Edinb. Mag. July 461/2.

Feeling under apricated this summer?

unlikely inventions (4)

the great cheesemaker...

In September a freak hurricane shoved its way across parts of the UK. In Ireland, plane rides were bumpy. In Oxford, winds were big enough to push over cyclists. After coffee and cake, two friends and I went for a walk around the Water Meadow in the tail end of the storm. Even the clouds were discombobulated.

formality...

enlightenment

CZA abbrev. Circum-zenithul Arc (n):

ever had atmospheric optics described over the phone?

i'm in the pub - in the back garden...
the sun's really low and there are wispy clouds everywhere...
there's this amazing patch of rainbow...
it's about a hand-span from the sun....
above the sun you have to see this...
it's like an upside down rainbow!

that kind of phonecall just makes my day! good thing i had my camera with me, and a handy rooftop to stand on :)

ride it out

wake up! apocalypse calling!

so the week of ice haloes went on a bit longer with this bonus post by mistake...

sun blushed

the final installment of the week of ice haloes!

hug

The most amazing display of ice haloes I have ever seen. Over the town of Woodstock in Oxfordshire. A 22° halo was visible, topped by a sun gull and parry arc. The sundogs are out of shot here, but were very colourful. The brightest part was the cloud smile (CZA) sitting on top of what looked like a 46° halo, but could also have been a superlateral arc. It was so impressive I was stopping strangers in the street to show them. The may have thought I was a bit mad... They may have been right. It was glorious.

The week of ice haloes concludes tomorrow...

a matter of scale...

Can you pick out the bright point - which I think is a Parry arc - above the 22 halo that had been present for an hour or so (sun-dog locations just out of frame).

(A week of ice haloes continues...)

sunset dogs

Does anyone else see a sun pillar here as well as the upper edge of the sun dog (parhelion)? The 22 halo had been visible for a while - though faint - but the sundogs were pretty clear in the mixed sky.

(a week of ice haloes continues)

aphrodisiac gig

Have you ever noticed that the sky on the red (out) side of a rainbow is darker than on the blue (inside). When there's a double bow, the strip in between is darker than the rest of the sky - due to all of the misdirected light busy making up the colours and the inner glow. This dark patch is named after its first decsriber, Alexander of Aphrodisias. The top of this 22 degree halo (possibly with a parry gull) is also darker on the red side. I guess this is also Alexander at work...

(A week of ice haloes...)

46 degree blues

returning from the JR in february, the boisterous spring sky put on a show. streaming whips of cirrus tore across the sky in wide swaths, slipping in and out of a bright 22° halo. above it, a 'cloud smile' lit up a fleeting fibrous veil - its blue-green tones iridescing gloriously - only to fade and flicker away in under a minute. its hard to tell if the arc below was a 46° halo or a superlateral arc. the curves kissed at the zenith - but wouldn't you? all the way up there above the sun? wearing such fine clothes?

Oxford & Adis Ababa are almost 46 degrees apart.

(Looks like we're having a week of ice haloes...)

traveller

sun dogs can appear at 22 degrees, from either side of the the sun - when ice crystals in cirrus clouds are at the right angle to refract prismatic sunlight. they are quite exciting. to check for sundogs location on a hazy day, hold your arm straight in front of you. when your thumb covers the sun, there might be a sundog at your little finger

it might be a long time between sightings...

22°

here be science: Bill Bryson's 'Short History' remixed

science is fun! which 'science word' was substituted in this passage...