Mayday Sunset I

Attractive sunsets involving low cumulus clouds are often the most vivid and, in this country at least, fairly infrequent. These clouds usually evaporate late in the afternoon as the sun ceases to warm the ground and provide a source of convection, and the most promising conditions tend to involve the substantial clouds of heavy showers. The orange streaky area is precipitation falling through the last rays of sunlight while the small bright patches are cumulus fractus clouds which form in the moist air under the main cumulonimbus cloud. Much as the meteorology of such phenomena interests me, artistic thinking must predominate if anything more than a record of the event is to result. May 2009.