Hammad Rais gives us the opportunity to share the lovely skies we see with the blogging world with his Weekend Sky challenge. Today I am sharing photos from early this morning that people in this area took and sent to the local TV station, KCCI, journalist Eric Hanson. I have never seen this phenomenon before and wanted to share these with you. These are Gravity Wave clouds. The rest of the pictures are even more amazing, I just wanted you to see this one to show how close to the ground they are without getting to the ground. Click on Eric’s name to go to his FB page for other pictures.

I will try to explain this the best my poor understanding can. In the Midwest, we have been experiencing extreme heat and high humidity, typical for the South where I came from but not for here. And on top of that, you have the heat coming off of the corn that is ready to harvest, raising heat pressure against the cloud not allowing it to come down to the ground like fog. This long cloud rolls horizontally as it moves through the atmosphere in front of the front. At least the front will cool us off.

Early morning shots taken by Ashley Thompson

This picture was taken from on top of a wind turbine by Blake, a contractor for Vestas. I think we all know how tall those turbines are so it gives you some height reference. Below is a shot taken by Corey Lehman of this same bank from ground level. Kind of scary in my book. It remind me of the dust storm cloud pictures I have seen that cover the land in find dust.

Weather’s power and beauty keep us all looking toward the sky wondering what is next. As we study the beauty of the skies around us, remember to share that beauty in kindness. Kindness has a beauty that surpasses anything we may see in the sky.