Cirrocumulus undulatus

Yesterday’s late winter sky, streaked with cirrus from the distant Pacific, transformed itself midday into a cloud collector’s delight. But Santa Fe skies are always a pageant of light and color, no matter what time of year it is.

There is an official publication of The Cloud Appreciation Society called “The Cloud Collector’s Handbook”, and I truly believe, in the course of a year or two, a sky-watcher could check off every entry in the book, here in Santa Fe. Take yesterday’s sky, for example: not only was it displaying a good example of cirrocumulus, but it was clearly undulatus with a bit of  radiatus thrown in for good measure. I needed the help of the book to find those terms.

For now I’ll leave you with a morning’s blessing of altocumulus castellanus glowing above the mountains east of Santa Fe: