Beyond the Clouds

June 2019  :  Francine Jackson

Lately, it seems we’ve been spending more time looking up at clouds, rather than the sky, resulting in Seagrave, and other public observatories, having to be closed. In some ways, the clouds can be beautiful, but, of course for us, they prevent us from doing what we love best: enjoying the beauty of the sky; however, they can also be the source of many weather problems.

In this neighborhood, we are now priming for our annual hurricane season, where we are never really sure the outcome of the storm until it reaches us, but we at least have several days’ warning to prepare for whatever it wreaks here. According to AccuWeather, this season should be a bit less active than last year, although a couple hurricanes might turn out to be major.

Right now, however, our hearts go out to the residents of the central U.S., which is undergoing a devastating bout of tornadoes, an event that arises virtually immediately. Already this year those residents are suffering untold numbers of deaths and destruction, and the season has just begun.

Tornadoes do occur here in Southern New England: You might recall the two that struck just last year in Rhode Island, in Lincoln and North Providence. Fortunately, they were not the strongest type, but they did cause quite a bit of damage where they set down. Again, as in other parts of the country, there was no warning – the residents had no idea tornadoes were going to come into their neighborhoods.

With both major storms, the change that occurs with the clouds is evident. Some who study tornadoes can almost observe the slight swirling effect happening, waiting for the beginning of the funnel cloud, then racing to it in attempts to better understand its potential. With those who study hurricanes, it is the run to the airport, to fly in toward the eye.

As the season of these storms come on us, we must remember that it is believed that the increase of the Earth’s temperature, leading us to the massive problem of climate change, is a factor in the number of hurricane and tornado events. All we can hope is that both storms, when they do occur, will not continue to wreak the havoc that is being seen elsewhere in our country, and that the clouds we see will mainly be cumulus, not of the storm variety, allowing us eventual clear skies and safe conditions.