"Of Sun Dogs and other clouded issues..."

Yesterday's cold front sure brought in the frozen bacon this morning, eh? And those winds didn't help matters much, either...the picture above was kinda neat in that it shows how strong the winds were aloft with the jet stream shredding the cirrus clouds overhead, making them more wispy than normal.

This is also the time of year that we see an optical phenomenon known as Sun Dogs rather often in the late afternoon hours with the sun low in the sky. It takes good clear air, a nice layer of icy cirrus clouds at just the right angles and orientations...and, magically, you'll start seeing two bright orb-ish spots about 22-degrees to either side of the sun...


...and they're especially cool if you put on polarized sunglasses, which helps clarify the colors by reducing a bit of the scattering glare going on. Depending on the many variables, they may last minutes or quickly change in and out...or if clouds are only on one side of the sun, you'll see only the one bright spot since it takes the ice crystals in the clouds to produce the effect.

You can also sometimes see an actual halo that joins these Sun Dogs in circumnavigating the sun, though the Sun Dogs, themselves, are seen are on the horizontal plane with the sun. The Sun Dogs pictured were taken just last weekend. Even though they are technically known as 'Parhelia', 'Sun Dogs' is much more fun to say!

Now, on to a very weird topic that is intriguing, far-fetched, yet not out of the realm of possibility: macro-scale modification and manipulation of weather by means of secret technologies. The man spearheading this subject was until recently an Idaho TV meteorologist, Scott Stephens .

(weird cloud pattern I shot last weekend near Charlotte...)

Even if you immediately are closed to the idea, I would urge you to take the time and read what he has to say...it is a complex theory, to say the least, with evidence that is often overwhelming...and at the very least you will know that something in the skies 'just ain't right'. There is a ton of information to peruse, so you might want to bookmark his site once you click HERE to get to the homepage.

And it was only last weekend that I looked up into the cirrocumulus cloud deck and photographed the rather bizarre cloud hole seen above...always pays to observe, even if you have no answers...

Which reminds me of a joke: Did you hear the one about the philosophical cloud giving a lecture?

Aw, never mind...it's over your head.