Well, it's been an exciting few days for me with the easterly bringing some interesting cloud formations, but today was amazing. I took some photos, but I really needed a camera lens that would take in the whole sky.
I felt like I was watching a cloud crumple zone - it kept piling in from the east then seemed to hit an invisible wall and turn round and back on itself forming the strangest of patterns.














Anita, North Cumbria, UK

Oh what a gorgeous set of photos! Not only do you live in one of the loveliest landscapes, you also have some of the best skyscapes! Devon can produce some corkers sometimes, but east of Dartmoor can be a bit tame and nothing like the drama of the Lakes and Pennines.

I loved your timelapse video too - thanks for posting such treats.

Gini

Also saw this today from above the Eden Valley,was amazing!!

You get full marks from me for those, Anita. I guess it is the Helm wind from your east at this time of the year. From your description of 'turning back on itself' it is almost as though it is trying to make a Helm bar, a standing wave, but not quite getting there, since you do not mention any clear sky twixt helmet and bar. And did the wind fizzle out in the valley bottom (Penrith way I suppose)?

Were we looking at the helmet (Cross Fell Pike, 2930 feet, the highest point of the Pennines) in your thread looking east to the Pennines some days back?

N.B. For others, Paul Simons (who does The Times weather column) says the Helm wind of Cumbria is the only wind in Britain that has its own name.

P.S. Out of curiosity about AK's googling of 'Pennines' I tried and got 'Pennine Way' (a long distance path) as the first item before descending into organisations with Pennine in their name.

I certainly felt like the proverbial kid in a candy shop today.
'H' - I can't see Cross Fell from my house, but I can see it if I go a little way south (and Great Dun Fell with radar and weather station amongst other things). The photo below was taken in Jan 2011 and you can see the gap between the Helm cloud on the Fells, and the Helm bar in front. Yes it is the Helm that I was referring to in my 'easterly' post.
On the fells the wind can cause great damage due to it's strength and scouring nature - farmers certainly don't like it.
An east wind doesn't always set off a Helm wind, and even if it does it may only last an hour or so. This time the east wind has been persistent enough to set the foehn effect going full pelt and it has gained it's own momentum. I'm only guessing that today's turbulence has been caused by a shift in direction or speed of the wind somehow interacting with the lower level air flow of the Helm. I will know more when I have read the book that my ever patient husband kindly brought home for me yesterday. 'The Anatomy of the Helm Wind' by David Uttley. Sadly I discovered the author died in 2010.



Anita, North Cumbria, UK

Excellent. Great to have such drama in your sky.

Anita I can empathize with you on these shots. Asperatus makes me feel as if I was on another planet. A week ago there was close to a 48 hr period of " weather" streaming thru the Valley. There was asperatus , lennies, and something that is pure visual , not a new cloud or anything, but those shots can wait. I like the excitement I am feeling from looking at your asperatus pics.

Thanks for posting them

Dear heavens! These are absolutely strong images filled with interesting features! I wish I could see them bigger.

Hope to see that kind of action some day!

Jari

Thanks Mike - looking forward to your next set of photos, as ever.

Jari - I wanted that sky to last forever. You can see bigger sizes here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/a-evans/

Not taken with my best camera, which has unfortunately come down with sensor measles since I pointed it into that exciting easterly just once too often

Very nice halo captures in your other post btw

Anita, North Cumbria, UK

'H', re your comment about the formation of the Helm bar. I've now uploaded an edited timelapse sequence taken on April 30th. Most of a day has been cut and compressed into 90 seconds! It does however show the helm cloud continuously pouring over the fells in the background while, on this particular day, the helm bar formed, dispersed and re-formed several times. I should think this was partly due to temperature fluctuations.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/a-evans/6990957638/

Anita, North Cumbria, UK

Anita, I am in awe of that last one. Thank you very much. I watched it in HD as well, first time I have tried that - I thought the landscape colours, greens etc looked better?

I hope you enjoy the book - let us know if you think other CAS members might. Mike, Fly-by-Wire, might enjoy it as I believe he has flown (glided) that way.

P.S. Mike, was your sole aurora photo taken from Cumbria or Scotland perhaps? Surely not your usual stamping ground of Hampshire, UK.