posted 01-29-2004 10:59 PM            

For some time, I have indicated that there is evidence that a foreign substance is being introduced into the atmosphere, to take the place of water, in weather causation. I describe it as being volatile, with a lower thermal inertia than water. It may also have a higher specific heat than water. This would make it more reactive, in the atmosphere, and capable of displacing water as a dominant force in weather causation. Unusually active clouds under quiescent conditions - say, at night, or in particularly cold weather - unusually colored clouds; the "land hurricanes" of last year; or water condensing on only mildly cool surfaces are only some examples. Around August of last year, at the same time the "land hurricanes" were occurring, I became aware of another unusual phenomenon, with respect to clouds. I term it "cloud calving".

The term "calving" is generally associated with a case of something, such as a glacier, breaking off part of itself. With respect to clouds, though, this does not represent, say, a portion of the body suddenly becoming detached. In fact, there are several utterly bizarre features that accompany "cloud calving". When a cloud "calves", it is not a simple and gentle process. During "calving", the "mother" cloud tends to remain relatively unchanged, moving slowly, or even standing in one spot, its movement being unchanged by the splitting off process. Suddenly, a section of the cloud will begin to literally spill out of the main body, often at a relatively very high speed. As the "mother" sits quietly, a significant section will shoot out, sometimes, too, at a significant angle to the movement of the main body. If you look at the join, where the two clouds still connect, you can even see the movement of mist into the smaller body, as the "calf" splits away. Eventually, the connection will start to thin, and threads of mist will soon be all that connects the two. Finally, the dissipation of the threads will separate the two.

The whole process, generally, doesn't take more than a few minutes.

I saw this for the first time in August of 2003, and not since, until today, January 29, 2004, when I saw it twice, at about 11:30 a.m.

The picture, below, is a sequence of pictures of the "calving" from August 27, 2003. That lasted only about two and one half minutes.

If anyone else has seen anything like this, it could be informative.