Cloud Gazing: The Best Five Minutes You’ll Spend with…

A previous post listed cloud spotting as a great, quick outdoor activity for children. Kids enjoy observing clouds because of all the wonderful shapes, scenes, people, and critters they imagine when looking at them. Clouds also offer a wonderful opportunity for a quick science lesson. For more about teaching kids about clouds click here.

I thought my readers might enjoy seeing photos I received from a friend of some beautiful cloud formations seen at Mount Rainier, which lies southeast of Seattle, Washington. From what I understand, they were so striking, people living in the Seattle area stopped in their tracks and drivers were pulling off the road to catch a glimpse.

According to NASA, they are multilayered lenticular clouds. Moist air forced to flow upward around mountain tops can create lenticular clouds. Water droplets condense from moist air cooled below the dew point, and clouds are opaque groups of water droplets. Waves in the air that would normally be seen horizontally can then be seen vertically, by the different levels where clouds form. On some days the city of Seattle is treated to an unusual sky show when lenticular clouds form near Mount Rainier.

A fun activity you can do with your children is to name the different types of clouds they see each day for a week. The evening skies during the late summer and early fall offer especially spectacular cloud formations. Encourage them to draw pictures of the clouds they saw. You can even cut them out and tape them to the ceiling of their bedrooms. Each evening you can lie in bed with them and discuss what they see above. You’ll be amazed by what they come up with with their imaginations!