Chaotic Sky

2008-08-07 04:25:08.000 – Brian Clark,  Observer

Chaos All Quads

This past week has been a change for me. I have been working nights all week, which Ryan typically works on my shift. Ryan took a half shift of vacation this week, so rather than switch from days to nights in the middle of the shift (which would be incredibly difficult to do!) I did the entire week on nights.n

nThe night shift is a welcome change from my typical days, although I don’t think that I could do it all the time. Not that I have to worry about that; Ryan loves working nights and his position as the meteorological observer dictates that he do so. It would also be difficult for me to do my job as the educational observer and shift leader while working nights on a regular basis.n

nTuesday evening, we actually got to see the sunset. I personally think it was the mountain trying to make amends for giving my shift the ugliest, most boring, most obnoxious week of weather I have experienced up here yet. Regardless, seeing the sunset was a very welcome sight, I just wish it hadn’t come right at the synoptic observation (a 6 hourly, more involved observation that we do). As you can see from the picture attached to this comment, there were a lot of different layers of clouds. It was extremely difficult to code all of those layers for the synoptic observation. I ended up coding six layers of clouds which is the maximum number we are allowed to code. If I was allowed to, I would have coded a total of 8. That is what we refer to as a “chaotic sky”.n

nThis will be my last comment for at least 3 weeks because, by the time you read this, I will be off the mountain and starting my vacation. See you all again on the 27th!

Brian Clark,  Observer