High Speed Clouds are Weather Change Indicator

-Pv- · 05-06-07, 02:35 AM

I usually only get to see snapshots of weather changes between time compressions.

Today I watched a complete weather change from calm to storm in real time for the 1st time. I was conducting a morning attack on two freighters in calm weather with 2 meter/sec winds and partial clouds. As the 2nd ship was sinking the clouds started their high speed morphing and I did a cntrl-W and saw the winds picked up 1 meter and changed direction 1 degree.

I continued to watch the waves increase in height and winds increase in speed and direction in one unit increments. The whole process from calm to overcast with 15 meter/sec and 90 degree direction change took about 40 minutes. All this time the clouds were racing and morphing. Even when the speed stopped changing but the direction continued to change, the morphing continued. As soon as the direction stopped changingwith winds completely stable, the morphing stopped and the clouds returned to a "normal" slow movement, then built to overcast and thunder.

Was an interesting process to watch. This leads me to believe the high speed morphs are an intentional feature (although too exaggerated) as an indicator the weather is in the process of changing wind speed and/or direction. Of course, if the wind is changing during a clear condition there is no cloud morphing. This is why some TC appears to still the morphs because the user happens to TC past the weather change.
-Pv-

05-06-07, 02:35 AM	#1
-Pv- The Old Man Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 1,434 Downloads: 5 Uploads: 0	High Speed Clouds are Weather Change Indicator I usually only get to see snapshots of weather changes between time compressions. Today I watched a complete weather change from calm to storm in real time for the 1st time. I was conducting a morning attack on two freighters in calm weather with 2 meter/sec winds and partial clouds. As the 2nd ship was sinking the clouds started their high speed morphing and I did a cntrl-W and saw the winds picked up 1 meter and changed direction 1 degree. I continued to watch the waves increase in height and winds increase in speed and direction in one unit increments. The whole process from calm to overcast with 15 meter/sec and 90 degree direction change took about 40 minutes. All this time the clouds were racing and morphing. Even when the speed stopped changing but the direction continued to change, the morphing continued. As soon as the direction stopped changingwith winds completely stable, the morphing stopped and the clouds returned to a "normal" slow movement, then built to overcast and thunder. Was an interesting process to watch. This leads me to believe the high speed morphs are an intentional feature (although too exaggerated) as an indicator the weather is in the process of changing wind speed and/or direction. Of course, if the wind is changing during a clear condition there is no cloud morphing. This is why some TC appears to still the morphs because the user happens to TC past the weather change. -Pv-