January Skies Part Three

Mid January and the light had changed again. There was not much wind but the incoming sea was still quite rough, the light a cool blue with patches of warm orange light seeping through. Walking along the tideline, the sand is littered with starfish, lots of tiny razor clam shells, only about an inch long, small crabs and many multi coloured clam shells.

The white foam from the breaking waves glowed with an eerie luminescence whilst patches of warm light pierced the overall blueness on this cold evening at Crosby beach.

The following day was very stormy and wet but around 3.45 pm I thought the sky looked interesting and went down to the beach to be presented with these dramatic storm torn skies.
Despite the rain there was a burst of yellow light as the sun pierced the clouds over Wales whilst grey swathes of rain swept across the sea. At one point a mass of either knot or dunlins swept across the scene in a shallow "S" curve.

A large rain cloud moved slowly inland, the falling rain just catching the light and glowing a pale yellow against the darker clouds. A half moon appeared through a gap in the clouds whilst the beach, wet from all of the day's rain, reflected the silhouettes of the iron men and the variations in light caused by the rapidly moving clouds.

The storm moved slowly inland and what appeared to be a funnel of rain, a lighter patch against the dark grey, descended from the clouds behind the flying saucer shape of the Leisure Centre.

The last shot of the day as another storm cloud sweeps in from the west, blotting out the hills of North Wales.

January Skies Part Two

A few days later and the weather had changed completely with strong northerly winds pushing south across the Irish Sea and driving fronts of rain swiftly across the seascape viewed from Crosby beach.
The late afternoon clouds are a strange pink-purple shade tinged with hints of blue and grey as light from the setting sun struggled to penetrate the cloud layers, tinging the thinner areas with an eerie warm glow.

An approaching cold front builds up a long dark mass of towering clouds with falling rain below which blots out white structures of the wind farms out at sea. The front moves rapidly along the coast as it is pushed south by the strong, cold winds. It is wet and windy but exhilarating at the same time seeing nature in action like this.

January Skies Part One

The weather in January 2019 has produced an amazing variety of stunning skies and cloudscapes to date. The weather has been mostly calm and some clear days have produced an amazing display of colour down on the beach.

These images were captured on the 9th January; there was a fine layer of high cirrus over the Welsh Hills which the sun was sinking slowly through, creating a fine yellow orange glow in the western sky. The air was calm, just the cries of gulls disturbing the silence.

As the sun sank behind the mountains of Snowdonia there was a plume of cloud rising from the summit of Moel Siabod, just like a volcano blowing off. 
The high cirrus clouds continued to reflect the light of the sun long after sunset, gaining in vibrant intensity, the colours changing from yellow to orange to a deep orange tinged with scarlet. Every time I turned to go home I looked back to see even more intense colours in the sky. 

Glowing white against the dark blue of the south western sky the thin crescent of a moon a few days old brightened as the light faded, the trail of a jet passing overhead scored a vivid orange scar against the clear sky.

Half an hour after sunset the light finally started to fade but there was still a strip of golden orange light across the western sky above the Welsh hills; faint rays of crepuscular light are radiated through the dust of the high atmosphere, the last rays of light from a sun now far below the horizon. Time to finally turn for home as darkness descended.

November Skies and Sunsets

I always find that once the year has turned and November is upon us again that the skies and sunsets viewed from Crosby beach become more interesting and spectacular again. At this time of year the sun sets behind the Welsh hills, throwing the mountains of Snowdonia into sharp relief if the air is clear.

These images were taken mid November on a very clear day just after sunset. The clouds in the sky reflected the light of the sun once it had sunk below the horizon and once again the iron men provide a perfect foreground for the interesting skies and dramatic cloud shapes.

Changing lenses to concentrate on the sky above the Welsh Hills produced the images below where the sky appears to be aflame with glowing light from the sun now long gone below the horizon.

I love this time of day when the beach is quiet, the air cool but calm and the silence only broken by the lapping of the waves breaking against the shore and the haunting call of a lone gull.

Two weeks later and I capture the images below just as the sun sets behind Moel Siabod in Snowdonia.

Again it is the clouds reflecting the light that make these images more interesting.