It looks like the first week of June will be solidly in the “summery” column. A ridge of high pressure will give us a sunny Friday with valley highs in the upper 80s. The 80s will stay through the weekend, although Sunday will bring a slight cool down with breezy conditions. Those breezes will create the first tenuous fire condition of the summer, so be very careful with any of those campfires.

So why do clouds “stick together?” Perhaps the easiest way to answer is to talk about why those kinds of clouds form in the first place. First, the cloud doesn’t really “stick together”; because if you look carefully at time-lapse imagery you will see parts of the clouds evaporate, while other parts seem to form out of clear air. So the make-up of the cloud itself doesn’t contain a single group of water molecules, but rather the actual cloud is always “recirculating” the water through it.

Cumulus form because small columns air rise and the water vapor condenses as the air cools. It is where this lifting occurs that the clouds seem to be sticking together, whereas in reality, it is a dynamic process of formation and dissipation. This happens with all cloud types. More on that tomorrow.