I consider myself to be a ‘sort of” naturalist. I have worked in land/water interface dynamics for over 50 years now but my interest in, and curiosity about, the breadth of nature and ecosystems is part of my core. My drive to photograph subjects in and of nature often results in my learning something new about a species, plant or landform. Yesterday a weather front passed through the area kicking off some rain, creating wind and dropping the air temperature. On my back to my house in my car I saw a very unique cloud pattern over the ocean. I live next to a marsh and creek that leads into the Lewes and Rehoboth Canal so when I got home I put my drone up in the sky to get a few pictures of the cloud before it dissipated or moved far out to sea. Of course I was curious about the cloud so I did a little online research this morning to determine if I was seeing a shelf cloud. Shelf clouds are seen along the leading edge of a frontal squall so, since this was a cloud that had already passed over where I was, it didn’t fit the parameters. In my cloud research I learned about a cloud formation called a “whale’s mouth”. This cloud formation follows behind a shelf cloud. I actually don’t think I saw either a shelf cloud or a whale’s mouth cloud but it is an interesting cloud and I learned new things about clouds related to a frontal passage. I would love to hear from anyone who knows if the cloud seen here has a special name.
