A deformation zone emerged around the top of the upper ridge around midday. Mare's tail cirrus appeared for a while in addition to the stratocumulus cloud that we had been watching for a few days. The classic deformation zone conceptual model could explain all of the lines and swirls in the moisture patterns. Cumulus clouds resulting from daytime heating are common on the sunny side of the deformation zone but dissipate on the cloudy side. Such was the case here as well, even with a southeastward moving deformation zone. Note that the cirrus is a bit thicker with the cyclonic circulation side of the deformation zone where the weak lift was enhanced - on the right. The opposite is true on the anticyclonic side of the deformation zone.The paired vorticity centres were weak and since there was nil moisture to reveal the associated circulations in the upper atmosphere, they could only be inferred from the conceptual model.
Every cloud has a tale to tell.
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