Morning sky

  

Such interesting clouds yesterday!  

Morning view from Cotati on 22 July 2026.

Christmas bow

  

Such dynamic weather today (25 December 2025).  Frequently the conditions were different on either side of our house.  Sun on the east side and rain on the west side led to a bright rainbow this morning.

Sunset wave

  

Sunset from Cotati on 21 July 2025.

Offshore fog

  

This isn't a recent photo, but it's been foggy at the coast lately, and I came across this older photo of offshore fog while doing some photo organization, so here you go!  Photographed from Bodega Head on 29 March 2013.

P.S.  Bodega Bay can be pretty foggy, leading to some nicknames for the foggiest months, e.g., June Gloom, No Sky July, Faugust.  It isn't foggy all of the time, but I'm intrigued by all of the different forms of fog.  What's your favorite form of fog?

Drifting in and out

 

 

 Fog, sometimes closer, sometimes farther, from the coast. 

Photographed on 14 July 2023.

Hail on the way

  

Dark clouds to the west, headed our way.  A couple of these passing squalls brought hail to Bodega Head today (27 February 2023).   Here's a short video clip.  [If you're reading this in an e-mail and can't see the video player, click on the title of the post to go to the NHBH web page.]

 

Towering

  

Interesting weather today, with rainfall totals so far in Bodega Bay at around 0.5-0.7 inches.  The clouds in the late afternoon were impressive — towering, and changing so quickly!  Photographed looking east from Cotati on 18 September 2022.

Cloud progression

  

Interesting clouds in the afternoon today (9 September 2021)...looking a bit like mountains!

And nice colors in the sunset over Bodega Harbor in the early evening:

 

 

 

Iridescence in the air?

  

I don't know much about clouds, but there were some wild ones overhead around noontime today (7 June 2021).  We could see a distinct band of clouds passing by with long wispy strands extending to the south. 

Eric looked up and said something about a rainbow, and I was confused at first, but then focused on where he was looking and saw subtle colors in the clouds:

 

 

 

The colors in this particular spot faded, but then I looked up again a few minutes later and there were some amazing colors in the clouds to either side of the sun.  I think these might be called iridescent clouds, but let me know if you know more about this phenomenon.  (I'd love to learn more!)

It was hard for me to capture this, but here are a few examples to document it.  These were very high, thin clouds, less than 45° from the sun.  The colors did not appear to be in "rainbow order," and instead appeared more random.  As the distance between the clouds and the sun grew, the colors faded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whoa! 

 

Before the rain

  

The ocean was a bit churned up today (5 March 2021) ahead of cold front that will bring some rain tonight.

Caught by the storm

Yesterday I had fun watching an isolated squall approach Bodega Head from offshore.  I was watching it out at sea, and could see that it was moving towards Bodega Head.  [You can click on the images for larger versions.]

3:13 p.m.

The contrast between the ocean ahead of the squall and within it was mesmerizing. 

3:14 p.m.

 

At first I thought it might slide to the north of where I was standing, and then I realized it wasn't going to, and I thought, "Uh oh...now I'm going to get soaked."  

3:16 p.m.

I took a few quick pictures and then turned to try to find shelter.  

3:18 p.m.

I knew that it was too late to stay dry, but I had had fun watching the storm.  Then all of a sudden I started getting pelted with hail!  It wasn't rain, so I had a little more fun taking a few pictures of the hailstones, and then I headed back in.

3:25 p.m.

 

Hail 2 March

We were driving to work this morning when it started to hail.  I haven't seen hail very often in Bodega Bay, so I was pretty excited.  I asked Eric to pull over so I could take a few pictures.  I tried recording a short video (see below).  And then, since the hail wasn't melting very fast, I went down to the beach to photograph the hail on the sand for the record.  [If you can't see the video below, click on the title of this post to go to the website.]

Hail 2 March 2018 from Jackie Sones on Vimeo.

I think I've only seen this once or twice in the last 10 years or so — hailstones being pushed up into a drift line by the waves:

 

Most of the hailstones were ~4 mm across:

 

Next, here's a series of photos with marine flora and fauna for context.

With coralline algae (bleached by the sun):

 

With snail egg capules:  

 

With a small sea urchin spine:

 

With a springtail (collembolid) on a hailstone (upper left corner)!

 

Light rain

We've been busy lately, including some field work during the low tide tonight.  I don't have too many recent photos to share, but here's one showing the light rain during our surveys on 5 November 2017:

Monsoonal moisture

At this time of year, rain is rare in Bodega Bay, but the forecast called for a chance of showers.  When I drove into work this morning, there was a nice view of raindrops at the north end of Bodega Harbor:

 

 

The surface of the harbor was fairly calm, so it was intriguing to see the detailed patterns of interacting ripples.  [Click on the images for larger versions.]

 

 

NWS marine forecast descriptions can be relatively "dry," but today's forecast included some nice phrasing:

 

"Echoes of precipitation can still be observed over the coastal waters. Expecting chances [of] showers and isolated thunderstorms to last into this evening as monsoonal moisture continues to pass over the region."

I especially liked "echoes of precipitation" and "monsoonal moisture."

In the rain

 

Peregrine Falcon in the rain, 7 February 2017

We've had quite a winter.  Today we reached a total of ~38" of rain since July 1st in Bodega Bay.  The average annual rainfall for this area is ~31".  Who knows what the next couple of months will bring, but we're on track to receive one of the highest annual rainfall amounts on record.  Will we reach or surpass 46", the amount recorded in 1997?

High in the sky

A day of interesting weather — rain showers alternating with sun, wind, and dynamic clouds.  We looked up at the end of the day to see a faint rainbow very high in the sky:

 

I hope you enjoyed the weather, too.

And here's wishing you...

...a Happy Halloween!

Can you believe your eyes?

Well, I'm out of time tonight, but I mentioned the amazing mirages visible during yesterday's heat wave, so I'll post a few pictures so that you can start enjoying and puzzling over them.  [Click on the images for slightly larger versions.]

These photographs show the shoreline north of Bodega Head near Jenner (the Goat Rock area and further north).  Note what appear to be incredibly sheer and improbably tall cliffs (at least for this area) at the waterline, and strange inversions of reality:

 

 

 

The next image is a boat offshore.  My basic (uninformed) impression is that there could be four images.  Starting at the bottom: (1) the boat at the ocean surface, then (2) an inverted image above it, then (3) a second image of the boat upright, and finally (4) a second inverted image above that.  I'm not sure about this, so see what you think:

 

When the weather clears, I'll photograph the same shoreline shown above for comparison.

Caught by surprise

They caught me by surprise:

 

It's been a good year for Painted Ladies (Vanessa cardui), but today numbers were noticeably higher.  

While photographing one for the record, I noticed another species nearby:

 

This Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) was also nectaring on Sea Thrift (Armeria maritima) along the Bodega Head bluffs.

Not long after this, I flushed a large dragonfly (a darner) from near the trail.  Interestingly, its wings were shiny, indicating an individual that had emerged from a wetland not too long ago.

And then I saw this butterfly land among the grasses momentarily:

 

Orange Sulphurs (Colias eurytheme) are common inland, but I only seen them occasionally on Bodega Head.  

I've mentioned before that Bodega Head is not the best place for butterflies and dragonflies — it's generally too cold with strong northwest winds coming off the ocean.  However, there are certain conditions that create potential for interesting insect viewing — e.g., when the winds are from the south or east and the thermometer rises.

The strange thing about today was that I hadn't really noticed these conditions, and there were lots of butterflies and at least a sign of dragonfly movement along the coast.

Had I just missed it?  I looked back at the weather data for the last few days.   The maximum air temperatures were about 57°F and 58.5°F.  Those temperatures are about average, and in fact it was warmer earlier in the month.

 
Then I looked at the wind.  I checked for the percentage of winds that came from the south, south-southwest, and south-southeast during the last few days.  Here's what those percentages looked like:

April 22 — ~15%

April 21 — ~14%

April 20 — ~35%

Below is a visual representation of the winds on April 20th:

 

Did the winds on Monday, April 20, encourage a strong northward push of butterflies and dragonflies?

I don't know, but it's worth keeping an eye out for these events and noting the weather around them.

Evoking Turner

We briefly interrupt Pelagic Week to share these views of the evening sky from our house in Sebastopol on 1 September 2013. 

 

 

As the clouds turned pink, there was something about the quality of light and their ethereal nature that reminded me of a Turner painting (Joseph Mallord William Turner).

 

 

P.S.  As I was taking these photos, two Purple Martins flew by overhead — the first I've seen and heard here.  They're uncommon migrants in Sonoma County.

Passing showers

 

Skies darkened to the northwest this morning.  Sheets of rain were visible on the horizon.

 

In the photo above, that's rain moving across the surface of the ocean towards Bodega Head.

 

The rain showers passed by quickly and were followed by sun and dramatic clouds.