Awesome lenticulars form above Mount Shasta in December2017.
When I gave my presentations down in Sonoma, I included a lengthy Power Point with tons of pictures of the trails in the Wine Country and beyond. After covering the local trails, I transitioned from discussing Napa and Sonoma Counties to introducing Mount Shasta. To do this, I included 13 images of the mountain that had been taken over the previous 9 weeks. It included a stunning array of cloud formations, sunrises and sunsets. Indeed, the last 2.5 months have seen a high concentration of spectacular lenticulars and the wintry conditions (despite the lack of snow down low) have made for some gorgeous scenes as the white mountain was illuminated by the rising and setting sun. Looking back through my collections of previous years images, I have not found a time where I observed a similar number of events. Obviously I have missed many great clouds, sunrises and sunsets, but I maintain that mid-December to the end of February saw an unusually high concentration of photogenic conditions.
On top of the incredible sequence of spectacles on Mount Shasta, we were also fortunate to witness a magnificent lunar eclipse. It sure has been a terrific 2.5 months!
