Weather photographs

Eclipses

The August 11th 1999 eclipse got a lot of publicity because it was total down here in Cornwall, as well as in parts of mainland Europe. It was an eerie experience despite the cloud. The light faded so rapidly in the last 10 seconds or so before totality, that darkness seemed to flow over you in progressively darker waves. In order to keep traffic congestion down the government did their best to spoil the event with adverse publicity and statements to the effect that a partial eclipse is quite an experience in itself, so stay where you are.

If that is the case why have recent partial eclipses had so little publicity. This photo, taken in Penzance through a thin layer of strato-cumulus) shows the October 1996 partial eclipse. I suspect that most people in Britain were not even aware of the event. The partial eclipse was interesting enough, but there is nothing to approach the atmosphere of totality.

Snow

It rarely gets very cold in West Cornwall. Penzance only averages 8 or 9 air frosts a year, and in 2002 there were none.

The only decent cover this century being on 8th January 2003. I dashed up onto the moors a couple of miles behind Penzance to take this photo. It was the first snow to settle for 6 years.

Wind and Storm

Wind is a dominant feature of the Cornish climate. Trees (where they can survive) and bushes all mould themselves to the shape of the cliffs.

Taking the year as a whole we get more wind, more rain, more sun, and higher temperatures than the the average for southern England.

When I spent a few years in London the weather blended into the background of life, but it’s something you really notice in Cornwall.

Dust Deposit

This photo was taken on 20th June 1998, after a brief light shower

A convenient small cumulus shielded the camera from the sun, and allowed my to take this picture of a halo in a thin veil of cirro-stratus

Praa Sands - December 2006

A south westerly gale and a large sea.

The foam coating the shoreline like snow.

Luckily the tide was small, and the pressure not too low (1009mb). Even so the wind driven surge took the sea above the normal high water spring tide level.