Corpusfishing.com

Central Scrutinizer

I pilfered one of Towboat Trash's pictures of the long, parallel clouds on the Island and reached out to John Metz, the really nice guy in charge of the local NOAA Weather Service Office (if you have never had the Severe Weather Spotter Class, I highly recommend it). Below is his response. In a nutshell, not technically a result of orographic lift, but something pretty similar - and especially prevalent in the summer. Many thanks to Towboat and John for providing my "learn something new every day" moment! Cool

This is likely the beginning phase of the sea breeze (https://www.weather.gov/jetstream/seabreeze) , where onshore winds converge with the warming land to cause rising motion along the coast and this cumulus cloud formation that you are observing. This boundary forms each day along the coast and is most pronounced during the summer when the land gets the warmest. The sea breeze usually begins to moves inland around the noon hour and can push inland as far as Laredo by late evening. Winds back more to the east-southeast in the wake of the sea breeze, temperatures typically drop a few degrees and the winds increase to 15 to 20 knots or more depending on the gradient along the coast.

Hope this helps,
Sincerely
John

Meteorologist in Charge
National Weather Service
426 Pinson Drive, Corpus Christi, TX

bulldog1935 · Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2019 8:35 am Post subject:

great explanation that also works for morning cloud line seen from the bay

Central Scrutinizer · Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2019 8:54 am Post subject:

Exactly!! The Land Breeze part near the end of the link perfectly explains why there is nearly zero days when I try and catch the sunrise on the beach, and it's completely cloudless offshore.

BayFly · Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2019 9:31 am Post subject:

Hey Bulldog, I love your compass on your kayak! I carry a hand held one in my chest pack, but never thought about putting one on the kayak. It looks like it's temporarily mounted?

bulldog1935 · Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2019 10:39 am Post subject:

HungerBuster · Flour Bluffian in training Joined: 07 Mar 2006 Posts: 371

So in other words, you're saying I was right?? Heh. Just kidding. Thanks for reaching out to John. Makes sense.
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Towboat Trash · Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2019 12:45 pm Post subject:

CS, thanks so much for finding out some answers and reaching out to John for us all! Although I sure do wish Billy was still here for me to send an email with subject line, "Dear Billy why do clouds form in the sky?" My heavens, that woulda got him fired up and done the trick alright. Laughing

Thanks again!
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Central Scrutinizer · Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2019 12:58 pm Post subject:

ST1300 · Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2019 9:14 am Post subject:

Wind and weather and clouds can be quite interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pit1ODeZQ44&t=84s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yOOuMRJYtI

Rebecca of Sunnybrookfarm · Full Grown Flour Bluffian Joined: 01 May 2008 Posts: 3974

a bunch of us have just simply called it the "Island cloud" because it forms over and along the island...during the summer, you can always count on it...
becky
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Tyler · Site Admin Joined: 06 Mar 2006 Posts: 12865