Follow the wind,
Run to the sky.
Find what you’re searching for,
Near or far.
Even in Southern California, Spring can be a fitful beast. This afternoon the temperature was in the low 50s, and the wind was blowing hard enough it was difficult to take a photograph. Just one week ago it had been a stifling 95 degrees — a temperature swing of more than 40 degrees.
After last Sunday’s record-setting storm in Southern California, and the cool, unsettled weather during the week, we expected snow conditions on Mt. San Jacinto to be even better than on previous trips this March. But snow conditions — especially backcountry snow conditions — aren’t always what you expect. The new snow, maybe a foot of it, was as thick as wet concrete. If we’d had a little kiwi fruit flavoring, it would have been perfect for shave ice.
Even if the snow wasn’t what we had hoped for, the day was extraordinary. Another weak front was moving into Southern California and the strong onshore flow ahead of the front was creating several kinds of interesting mountain weather phenomena — some common and some not so common.
Riding up the tram, we could see plumes of dust blowing across the desert floor east of Banning Pass, and a stack of lenticular clouds hovered over the mountains east of San Gorgonio Mountain. It was breezy at the upper tram station, and from the walkway descending to Long Valley, we could see rimed trees on the southeast side of San Jacinto Peak.
We skied up a beautiful untracked drainage south of the Round Valley trail, and eventually worked our way over to Long Valley Creek and then to Tamarack Valley. We were almost to the top of the steep step above Tamarack Valley, and had paused for a moment to look around. There was a distinctive wave cloud to the southeast, and the lower cloud deck was beginning to engulf Toro Peak (8716′). I turned to continue up the slope, and as I looked up, the first of a series of tumbling and twining filaments of gossamer cloud swept past in the turbulent west-northwest flow (video).
Six months ago, also before the passage of a cold front, I’d seen similar clouds on Boney Mountain, in the Santa Monica Mountains. In that case and here on San Jacinto, a moist layer in a stably stratified westerly flow was being lifted over a mountain range. Depending on whether the flow remained laminar, or became transitional or turbulent; a wave cloud, transient wave cloud, or these turbulent thin sheets of cloud might form. In each case the atmosphere was becoming more moist and the clouds were precursors to the formation of a more widespread and persistent cloud layer.
These vaporous, turbulence-induced clouds bear a striking resemblance to interstellar molecular clouds. Both appear to occur in a high-Reynolds-number regime, and each appears to consist of a cohesive, thin sheet of condensate that can be stretched, sheared, undulated and torn. As in the case of its interstellar counterpart, when viewed edgewise, the clouds look like they are comprised of thin, web-like filaments.
The title photo was taken a little below the summit, after ascending the peak. It’s a view to the south, past Jean Peak (10,670′) and Marion Mountain (10,362′), and shows the terrain induced uplift, waves, and turbulence over the San Jacinto mountain range. The flow is from the right to left.
The long streaks in the photograph above are cirrus clouds embedded in a 125 kt jet stream that was positioned over Southern California Thursday afternoon.
The jet stream was at an altitude of about 30,000 ft. and associated with an upper level low pressure trough off the coast. This trough is the source of the disturbances that are resulting in our latest bout of wet weather.
The jet stream is a key feature of the earth’s atmospheric circulation, and plays an important role in both weather and climate.
For more about jet stream cirrus see A Composite and Microphysical Study of Jet Stream Cirrus Over the ARM Site.
The photographs are from a trail run on Thursday.
View of Eagle Rock from East Topanga Fire Road, a little west of its junction with the Garapito Trail
By the time I reached Rancho Sierra Vista/Satwiwa at the end of last Sunday’s wet run to Serrano Valley and back, the frontal band was mostly done with its showers and was speeding to the east. In its wake were blustery winds, broken clouds, and a dynamic patchwork of sun and shadow on Satwiwa’s spectacularly green landscape.
These mountain wave clouds were produced by north-northeast winds blowing across the generally east-west oriented mountain ranges north and northwest of Los Angeles. The clouds form near the crests of the undulating airflow downwind of the mountains.
The cirrus veils trailing downwind from the clouds are comprised of ice crystals. There was little shear, so the wisps and sheets of cirrus are aligned with the wind and perpendicular to the long axis of the cloud. Compare to the cirrus veil of these lenticular clouds, also formed by north-northeast winds, but which were being sheared by northwesterly winds.
From a trail run at Ahmanson Ranch on Thursday.