Cumulus clouds were on the rise here yesterday morning, creating scenes worthy of the best sky watchers. (Thomas Cole, J.M.W. Turner, and N.C. Wyeth come immediately to mind.) Here you see the first billows rising over a local landscape.
The clouds kept billowing as they moved northeast over Blue Hill and Jericho Bays, crossing over the western mountains on Mount Desert Island:
However, by early afternoon they had decided to huddle into a solid gray mass that was no longer cumulus, it was overcast.
As you may know, the name “cumulus” is derived from the Latin for “piled” or “heaped.” They’re the clouds that most attract people who like to lie down on the slope of a hill and imagine celestial shapes. Yesterday, there were turtles, clowns, camels, and castles drifting by. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on March 18, 2024.)