Sunset rainbow

  

After off and on rain showers for most of the day (12 April 2026), Eric spotted a brilliant rainbow to the southeast of Cotati at sunset. 

Clearing showers

  

Clearing showers at the end of the day today (17 March 2025) produced a beautiful rainbow to the east.  And who was at the end of that rainbow?

The Anna's Hummingbird on her nest -- a little green (and a pot of gold?) for St. Patrick's Day!  ;)

Clouds after the storm

  

 Some cloud photos for you from 23 November 2024. 

 

 

 

 

Gray-green

  

Passing showers this afternoon (6 March 2023) made for a nice gray-green combination.

Passing rainbow

 

 

No photos today, but here's one from yesterday.  A very bright rainbow in a passing shower to the east at the end of the day (27 February 2023).  The weather has certainly been dynamic lately!

Southbound

  

 

Sheets of rain at the horizon on 22 February 2023 

 

 

 

Passing showers

 

 

Passing showers on the western horizon, 7 November 2022

Rain on the way

  

This photo was taken about a week ago, but it seemed similar to the conditions in the early evening tonight, so I thought it would appropriate to share ahead of the coming rain.  (Yes, rain!)

Silver seas

  

Some beautiful passing showers out at the horizon today, 27 December 2021.

Shower curtains?

  

Rain showers falling to the horizon over the Pacific Ocean, 8 March 2021.

Chance of rainbows?

  

 
Tonight I started wondering, "What if weather forecasts included the chance of rainbows (like a chance of showers)?"  Or maybe it's just more fun to be watching the sky and trying to predict whether the conditions are right for a rainbow to appear?  There sure were some beauties today (3 February 2021)!

 I photographed this one on the way home from work late in the day.

 

 

 

The north end and the south end

 

Two ends of one rainbow in Petaluma on 2 December 2019 — the north end (above) and the south end (below):

 

I hope this is just the start to "rainbow season"!

 

Out of the sea

 

Dramatic light surrounding the North Farallon Islands.  Photographed from Point Reyes on 29 November 2019.

 

Lingering

 

Lingering showers and swell on the morning of 27 November 2019.

 

Passing shower

 

We finished our field work this morning before it started to rain, but there was faint evidence of a rainbow and a passing shower on the horizon (21 May 2019).

 

Lingering

 

Lingering light showers this afternoon, 6 March 2019

 

Showers and light

This one is from 4 February 2019.

 

Weather views

Yesterday, the light was interesting everywhere you looked.  Just for fun, here are three views of the ocean during a brief 10-minute period around mid-day.  [You can click on the images for larger versions.]

 Squall on the horizon:

 

River runoff in the waves:

 

 

Sliver of light:

 

Approaching from the west

Well, I know I owe you some more photos of the mystery close-up from 2 February 2019.  But...there was a football game to watch yesterday, and there was some interesting weather today.  So I'll show a few seascapes tonight and then I'll get back to the mystery tomorrow.

Today the weather forecast called for showers with local gale force wind gusts...and they weren't kidding!

At one point while I was sitting at my desk today, the sky darkened noticeably.  I went out to see what was happening.  [You can click on the images for larger versions.]

 

Storm clouds over the ocean and rain showers approaching Bodega Head from the west:

 

Soon after I stepped outside, the temperature dropped, the wind picked up, and I knew I better put on a rain coat!

 

I went back inside to see if this squall was visible on the radar (below).  Bodega Head is hidden by the red patch below and to the left of Sebastopol.  (Rain intensity increases from green --> yellow --> red --> purple.)

 

By the way, did you notice the small patch of blue just above and to the west of Sebastopol?  That indicates possible snow in the Cazadero area!  I'm curious — did anyone see snow up there today?

 

(Radar maps from Accuweather.com)

Distant showers

Dark blue-gray clouds to the west with passing showers on the horizon made for dramatic lighting in the late afternoon today (14 January 2019):

 

Especially eye-catching was the contrast between the white wave splash and the distant showers: