Thoughts on teaching, technology, learning and life in an era of change.
 
A battle in the sky above Australia
May 16th, 2009

During the night the Illawarra coast of NSW experienced gale force winds as a low pressure system and a high pressure system battled to the south and east of the continent. I awoke during the night and literally cleared the decks just to ensure that some of the outdoor furniture decided it suddenly preferred life in the kitchen via the rear windows.

There were some very strong gusts early in the morning, well before sunset, so I climbed out of bed, got dressed, brewed some coffee and sat out by the back deck to observe the impact of the wind. I felt it was a good idea to keep an eye on our home and those of our neighbours just in case any decided that they wished to shift their location to one east of their current position.

As I sat and waited for the coffee to finish brewing I observed that some of the higher altitude clouds were beginning to show hints of red as they captured the rays of the sun which was still well below the horizon from my perspective on the ground. I grabbed my camera and took a number of photographs of the clouds to the west, south and east. Those shown are not in any chronological order. It i simply the order in which I resized them.

 

5 Responses to “A battle in the sky above Australia”

  1. Grace kat Says:

    Those clouds in the first photo look like they are about to land in your back yard! Sydney isn’t too bad at the moment although it is very gusty.

  2. John Larkin Says:

    Thanks Grace,

    It was impossible to get the entire cloud formation in a single shot.

    I suspect that the massive cloud bank may have been part of the western leading edge for the cold front as it passed along and over the coast earlier this morning before sunrise. Cold fronts like this often result in some spectacular cloud formations. I was lucky that I climbed out of bed to check up on things. It was quite gusty last night and this morning. Settled down a bit now.
    Cheers,
    John

  3. Isaak Kwok Says:

    John, the photos of the clouds look wonderful. The clouds seem to be on fire! :)

  4. nicolas Says:

    hi,
    i read your different text about the station to station colours sleeve and tried to contact you but that’s the only way i find to get to you.
    I’ was wondering if there’s anyway to be sure a US colour proof can be a real one and not a counterfeit?
    thanks if you get that mail for the answer (and that would be great to complete your site with that question!)
    sorry to bother you anyway.

  5. George Roberts Says:

    Just a note further to your post last 29 July and Stephen Downes comment thereon: I see that you have adopted Posterous into your toolkit… and the cloud pics are beautiful, too ;-)