Figure1 – Striated clouds, sidebands of a cyclonic weather system, IPhone photograph, Wilmington, MA, Feb. 6, 2017. (c) DE Wolf 2017.

It was a cold February day today in Boston – this in anticipation of a storm tomorrow that is going to sock us with snow and rain. When I went out for a short walk this afternoon, I discovered the entire sky filled with ominous striated clouds stacked in periodic rows as far as the horizon. I thought at first of mammatus clouds, which we have spoken about before. But that was not quite right. Still there was the sense of a turbulent and boiling sky. The weather was definitely up to no good.

When I got back to my computer, I looked it up and sure enough these striations are indicative of cyclonic weather events, of hurricanes and worse tornadoes. Here I think the culprit is a huge storm churning in the Atlantic. I tried to capture it all with my IPhone and the result is Figure 1. which gets the color and pattern right if not the extent and drama of the scene.