photo #5403968

Early on a crisp autumn morning, Steven Snyder (Member 54,294) pulled over while driving by Diablo Lake, Washington State, US to take in the peaks of the North Cascades. ‘I saw that the mountains had draped themselves in a cloudy scarf against the chill,’ he said. ‘It was as if they’d pulled down threads from the thinner cloud high above to weave something thicker for their shoulders.’ The high clouds were Cirrus fibratus radiatus. The term fibratus, from the Latin for ‘fibrous’, is used for the form of high ice-crystal cloud Cirrus that resembles long strands or threads. It is probably the most suitable cloud from which to weave a scarf, and in this case, the mountains chose to craft a length of Stratus. Few people would associate Stratus clouds with warmth and cosiness, but these things are relative, and mountains know a thing or two about the cold.