Thursday 18 August 2011

Blue Skies

On Tuesday we were working with clients based in Chinon, so on the way home we called in to see our friends Chris and Annie, who very kindly invited us to stay the night. Over breakfast yesterday morning we all commented on how clear and blue the sky was, thus proving the weather forecast (rain, thunder, lightning and quite possibly the end of the world) wrong.

Fifteen minutes later we were less confident, as we realised that the rumbling noise wasn't trucks on the road, and the horizon was dark grey rather than blue In order that we should get home before trouble arrived Susan and I hotfooted it outta there so as to miss driving in the rain in Célestine. On the way we had to stop for fuel in Richelieu which was where we noticed the clouds had got interesting.

A panorama. Click to enlarge
South                     East                     North
About an hour after we arrived home the clouds caught up with us, so there was a second round of taking photos and hoping they might actually show what we could see.



Although the sky was ominous we missed out on any damaging weather. We did get a heavy shower or two in the early afternoon, but the evening was clear, blue, hot and humid.

All of the photos will enlarge if you click on them - it really was the most sculptural sky we have ever seen except in the movies. The photos don't quite do it justice.

Simon

5 comments:

GaynorB said...

I was at the market in Loches and there was some thunder and lightning. The rain got heavier on my drive home. The sky and cloud formations were fantastic.

Glad Celestine didn't get wet!

ladybird said...

The third photo looks almost as if there were a tornado brewing inside that cloud deck! Scary!

Amanda said...

It is so seldom we have clouds in Southern California that it is always a treat to see them. Those are very impressive.

Tim said...

We were at Le Louroux on an LPO "See the Raptors" walk. The front came over us very slowly... very very slowly... with that roiling, boiling cloud effect. I took a number of photos [as yet still on the memory card] one of which Pauline reckons contains a large spaceship! Another looks as though we were above the clouds... all total optical illusion... 'superbe!'
Then I remembered.... after the fifth jagged bolt came down... that the Livebox was still connected... I now know it takes 30mins to get from Le Louroux to ours without breaking the limits [mind you it is difficult anyway in a 2CV].
We got back here just as the first drops were falling and the Livebox was unplugged before we unloaded the car!
We got a very close sighting of a Kestrel dropping onto a victim... by the front gate. No other raptors showed their feathers!

WR is "slumiu" - a good word for what the clouds were doing.

Susan said...

Martine: There seemed to be many tornadoes hatching in those clouds.

They were extraordinarily beautiful.

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