Lenticular clouds roil around Mount Shasta during the last sunrise of May.
I have been working on another post on Mount Shasta’s topographic prominence but I wanted to put this up now to memorialize the awesome clouds that appeared around Mount Shasta today. This morning I was granted the opportunity to go on an early morning hike with a friend out in the Shasta Valley. We hit the trail just as the sun started to appear on the horizon. As we drove out there, it appeared as though there was minimal cloud on the mountain. However, as we swung around to the north, it was evident that there was quite a bit of ongoing drama at the mountain’s upper reaches. It was a spectacular sight.
We hit the trail and as we walked, we watched the clouds continue to change and morph. They eventually grew until Mount Shasta was no longer visible. There were plenty of other interesting clouds in the sky too. Even Mount Eddy was home to a small lenticular formation.
While the spectacle played out on Mount Shasta, the northern half of the Shasta Valley was covered by typical white clouds that just hinted at the possibility of thunderstorms developing in the area.
Beautiful clouds form above Table Mountain.
Storms certainly proved to be the case. By late afternoon the clouds had grown and the sky turned dark. The rain came down hard for about 30 minutes before it finally slackened a bit. An hour later, just as the sun began to set the clouds cleared, leaving a gorgeous, colorful sky at the end of the day. I had the chance to go to one of my nearby vistas and capture the sunset on the mountain. It was a beautiful memorial to the wet year we have had so far and the coming of the summer weather. May be it be a fantastic season!
The final sunset of May 2019.