On Aug 30, 12:54*pm, Dave Cornwell wrote:
Bernard Burton wrote:
"Dave Cornwell" wrote in message
...
Are the high grey/white clouds that seem to be currently plagueing the
whole of the UK (with perhaps the exception of parts of the SW and North
Norfolk, and Scotland) a mixture of cirrostratus and altocumulus, I'm
never very good with these amorphous skies? Either way the Met Office
forecast it well on Sunday's Countryfile forecast.
Dave

Your description doesn't fit the sky we have here in Wokingham Dave. We have
a complete cover of stratocumulus at about 4500 ft (1.4 km), not by any
means a high cloud layer.
Vertically pointing radar and lidar images in real time can be seen at:
http://www.met.rdg.ac.uk/radar/realtime/pbl.html
and you may find these instructive.
However, you do not state where you are observing, and it may be different
where you are. It is always of use if the location is given in the post..

----------------
Looking at those, and whilst not fully understanding them, it would
appear there has been some thickening and lowering since about 10.00.
I'm probably a poor judge of cloud heights and the original "high" layer
was certainly not as high as cirrus so I suppose I should have said mid
level.
Dave, S.Essex

It was similar in Southampton, a "high" layer of what looked to me
like Sc dominated until around 1100BST. It was gloomy at first (0900
BST) but brighter by 1100 as the middle part of the day approached.
However at that time a separate layer of cumulus formed below this
original layer and has since spread out with the result that the whole
afternoon so far has been very gloomy for August. It seems more like
mid October with this light level - we've had many, many cloudy days
this summer but this is different in that it's decidedly *gloomy*,
well before sunset.

The first anticyclonic gloom of the winter, and it's still August!
Let's hope the joy of a typical southern English winter (three weather
types: active Atlantic fronts and rain, Tm airmasses and drizzle, and
anticyclonic gloom) doesn't await!

Nick