A small observational window

Woke up this morning at nine am to find cold, dreary grey skies abound, and a good gusting of wind out my front door. Throughout the morning burst of rain could be heard pounding the pavement beside my window, and gushes of high winds surfed the channel beside my house and gate.

I walked to the park down the street, which is an awesome spot to survey the cloud cover and formation all over the city. To the NNE, I could see some rain falling from a collection of what I would call cirrostratus clouds, but with the addition of rain, I suppose they would simply be called stratonimbus clouds. The entire sky is cloud covered at the moment, and the clouds coming from the west are textbook altostratus-a darker featurless layer of cloud that looks to be of mid-height classification. Its chilly and a bit windy, and the air felt wet although it wasn't raining at the time. I have a feeling I'm in for sections of rain and cold gusts as I take transit across the city to school.

The weather office provides these readings for the moment:

Observed at:

Vancouver Int'l Airport

Date:

11:16 AM PDT Monday 14 March 2011

• 
  

  Condition:

  Light Rainshower

  Pressure:

  100.0 kPa

  Visibility:

  19 km

  Air Quality Health Index:

  3







• 
  

  Temperature:

  7.7°C

  Dewpoint:

  4.8°C

  Humidity:

  82 %

  Wind:

  SSE 21 km/h







•  

Taking a look at the currently available surface maps, Vancouver is sitting under a huge low pressure system, and a sizeable occluded front is sitting right over the city.

Cloud Formations visible to the West:

As these layers are "featureless" we have ourselves some stratus clouds!







These far more interesting photos were taken facing NE: