Cloudfire

The rainy season means more clouds than sun.  I’ve lost track, but we have to be at about a foot and a half of rain for the month of September.  By comparison, Detroit has had 6″, and this was a wet one for the Motor City.

The clouds do break up on occasion, and if one is lucky enough to be on water’s edge at nightfall, one is treated to a spectacular display.

6:01 PM Guam standard time.

Sun bright in the sky at water’s edge.  Light passing through the atmosphere is blue, light reflected in the atmosphere red.  Sunsets are powered by this simple bit of physics.  What makes each sunset unique are clouds which further reflect and diffuse light.

6:06 PM Guam Standard Time.

The sun creeps to waters edge, tinting vapours on the horizon with yellow and gold.  Off to the north, a cumulus tower sheared flat by dry high altitude winds undergoes a remarkable transformation.

Hints of sky blue pink airbrushed in.

Two minutes later, Nature turns up the gain on the color palette.

Clouds change colors as one watches.

It’s 6:08 PM Guam Standard Time – a mere seven minutes from the first photo.

Seconds before 6:10 PM, the sun is halved by ocean’s horizon.

The cumulus tower ablaze as if to be consumed from within.

6:14 PM Guam Standard Time.  The sun has set; the sky ablaze in liquid gold.  An alchemist’s inspiration, perhaps.

We’re not done yet.  Sol works wonders from beyond the horizon if the upper atmosphere is just so…as it was this evening.

6:25 PM – an image so surreal as to be otherworldly.  The phenomenon lasted all of 90 seconds; fading from view yet leaving an indelible mark.

The whole show?  25 minutes start to finish.  When one is close to the equator, the sun sets quickly.

We close with the favorite shot of the evening:

One imagines anicent man looked upon a display as this, inventing gods and legends to explain a fleeting moment’s glory.