Friday cloud formation

I know I usually post a video from YouTube on Fridays, but today I want to post a picture I took on  y way back to PE from the Tsitsikamma.  Just outside Port Elizabeth I noticed a very interesting cloud formation and snapped a quick photo.  Not long after a friend posted a picture of the same clouds he took from the Donkin on Facebook.  One of the people who commented on it gave an explanation on what it was.  The clouds are Cirrus Clouds which is the most common form of high-level clouds. Typically found at heights greater than 6,000 meters, cirrus clouds are composed of ice crystals that originate from the freezing of super cooled water droplets.  The reason they were making these lines which made it look like the clouds were "leaking out" is wind sheer most likely caused by an approaching cold front pushing the air forward in front of it.  Interesting, isn't it?

Thankful for the rain

What an absolute pleasure the rain was today.  From the sound of it not much fell in the catchment areas which means we need a lot more but I'm sure at least the lawns around town sighed a sigh of relief.

Clouds over Port Elizabeth

Last weekend while on the beach I noticed this line of clouds moving over Port Elizabeth.  If I didn't know better I would have thought it was a cold front coming in, but these clouds were moving away and this was the back of it.  Was rather striking... 

Refreshing rain

I've done a lot of travelling over the last two weeks but aren't complaining.  I love to road trip for work cause it also gives me the chance to sight see and Geocache while I'm at it.  I had to dash up to East London yesterday and drove back this afternoon.  It's been a hot and humid morning and just after Alexandria I encountered the first drops.  Had rain all the way back and it hasn't really stopped raining.  As I'm posting this at 8:49 PM it's still falling outside.  I'm going to sleep like a baby tonight. A sleeping baby that is and not one that wakes up every few minutes.  

Afternoon rainbow

Its been a cold and wet week with close to a 100 mm of rain that has already fallen.  Friday saw a break in the clouds before the next cold front hits us for what seems to be a wet weekend.  On our way home yesterday afternoon the KidZ spotted a full rainbow streaking across the sky and as I drove down our street the one end disappeared behind the houses at the bottom.  I grabbed my camera and just snapped this picture when it started raining again. Stay warm my friends.

Stormy beachfront

Last week we had some stormy weather pass over Port Elizabeth. Rain, cold and very rough and high seas were the order of the day.  I stopped on my way to work one morning and this was the scene looking towards Humewood and Hobie Beaches.

Rainy day in the Bay

The last couple of months have been a bit on the dry side and after the previous weekend's rain it seems that the weather has suddenly discovered some more moisture to share with us.  Over the last 48 hours we've had some good rains in and around Port Elizabeth with apparently more to come in the next day or so.  I know its not the most exciting picture but here is one I snapped while sitting in wet traffic this morning.  Wet traffic being the type where people forget how to drive, either going like hooligans or driving like grannies (no offense to grannies) and a normal 20 minute drive to work this morning took me an hour. 

Approaching storm

If locals didn't realize that it was winter yet, they were reminded a week or two ago when a big coldfront hit and temperatures plummeted.  Suddenly it was freezing outside for a couple of days before normal winters weather resumed.  I was driving back to the office when the coldfront passed over and snapped this pic from the beach at Bird Rock.   

Ominous skies over Port Elizabeth

Port Elizabeth sometimes has the tendency to produce four seasons in one day.  A week ago we had a nice hot autumn day that makes one think that we're still in the midst of summer.  During the afternoon the Damselfly and I went on a cruise in Algoa Bay on the Jester and suddenly the weather changed.  Mist and clouds started rolling in from the west without warning and as we cruised back into the harbor the drops started falling.  This pic was snapped just out from Hobie Beach as the clouds started gathering.  I added just a smidgen of HDR to enhance the effect.

Coega wind turbine

Port Elizabeth gets it's fair share of wind and that is where the Windy City tag line comes from.  Not many are big fans of wind but the wind does have its good points as well.  The first being the fact that it keeps our air clean and blows the air pollutions away.  Recently wind turbines have started to go up around the city and I'm surprised that it has taken this long for it to happen.  The first one was put up at Coega and since construction has started on wind farms at Blue Horizon Bay, Jeffrey's Bay, Cookhouse and now also Motherwell.  The one at Coega is still standing there by his lonesome self and I decided to go and have a closer look.  It is HUUUUGGGGGEEEEE, standing 95m tall with a rotor blade radius of 49m.  That's my car standing to the left of it and Damselfly and Chaos Boy is newt to invisible by the door at the base.

Humewood flood damage

Port Elizabeth is experiencing its wettest non-flood year on record (the second wettest of all time only after the 1968 floods) and we've still got another two months to go till the end of the year.  Looking at all the flooding we've had they can just as well declare this year a flood year as well, but that's not my call.  With the huge rains we had a week or so ago even the docile Shark River that flows through Happy Valley came down in flood.  And flood it did, bursting its banks, rushing down the pathway and stairs before washing a ditch about a meter and a half deep and four meters wide under the Humewood bridge on its way to the sea. Hectic stuff.

Sunrays

Last week the skies above Port Elizabeth gave a stunning display of Crepuscular rays.  Yes, that's the proper name for it.  Usually you only get to see it for a couple of seconds or maybe even minutes, but on this day if just continued to be visible for large parts of the day.  I found that there are many different names for it so doesn't matter if you call it Sunbeams, Sunburst, Sun rays, Ropes of Maui, Jacob's Ladder, Stairways to Heaven, God Rays, God's Fingers, Jesus Beams, Cloud breaks, Volumetric lighting, Buddha's Rays, Divine Light or Shafts of Light, I just call it simply beautiful.

Flooding on Seaview Road

Whenever we have excessive rain in Port Elizabeth the 3rd Avenue Dip is the first road that gets closed.  When Port Elizabeth has manor flooding, like we've had twice in the last three weeks, one of the roads that get the worst effected is the Seaview Road at the Deer Park turnoff.  There is no river that runs through there, but the runoff from the surrounding hills dam up at the bottom and over the last 6 years have caused major flooding on at least two occasions.  On the road itself the water is apparently 1,6 meters at its deepest point while a restaurant and wedding venue about a hundred meters away is up to its upstairs windows under water. 

I took a drive out on Sunday morning and this is the sea of water that greeted me. 

Phantom ship

A phantom ship in Algoa Bay? No not quite, but wouldn't it have been awesome (and life changing) if I did capture one?  The rainy weather around town the last couple of days meant that I could barely see the harbour from Shark Rock Pier at Hobie Beach the other morning.  This ship kept of disappearing in the mist. Like a phantom ship...

Rainbow

With all the rain we've been having the last couple of weeks we haven't had a lot of sunshine around.  But when the sun does break through there is always a chance of a rainbow.  Like this one I caught coming off the N2 at the Westering / Framesby off ramp.

Raindrops on my windscreen

We had some good rains lately although a lot more is needed, specially in the catchment areas.  I was sitting in traffic on the way home the other day, enjoying the rain, when I decided to take an impromptu photo of the rain through the windscreen of the car.  At one of the traffic lights I lined up my shot and waited for the car in front of me to pull away when the light turned green to get this.  Luckily there was nobody behind me so I could wait a couple of seconds.

Foggy day

We get two types of fogs (does that sound right?) here in Port Elizabeth.  The first is when we get up in the morning to milky clouds all around us.  Often this is a sign that the day will be very hot once the fog burns away.  The second type of fog is when we have a hot day and cold air moves in from the south over the sea.  This cool air gets blown onto land as mist.  The photo was taken from the lookout close to Noordhoek.  Usually the Cape Recife Lighthouse can be seen from here, but on this day the approaching fog obscured it from view.  I can just imagine the foghorn calling its haunting call when I look at a pic like this.

Fog bank

Earlier in the week we had a nice hot day in Port Elizabeth and I decided to take a drive down to the beachfront during my lunch time.  From the Flat Rocks parking area you could see a fog bank rolling into Algoa Bay as cooler air was blowing in from the Indian Ocean.  It look like in the movies and I was expecting to see a ghost ship sail out of the fog at any time.  Wouldn't that have made an award winning photograph! 

Rain

As I have mentioned before, Port Elizabeth as well as big parts of the Southern and Eastern Cape is in the grips of what is said to be the worst drought in 150 years. Last week we had about 3 days of on and off rain which brought huge relieve to the lawns and gardens around town. Unfortunately there is still a lot of rain needed in the catchment areas before the drought is broken.

Fire devastation

Part of the devastation in Fairview after the recent fires