When I left work Monday I couldn’t believe what was going on in the sky. The clouds were simply spectacular, with all kinds of odd, shifting shapes. I bolted to the edge of town as quickly as I could, finding an area without a lot of clutter, and began pointing my camera upward to chronicle what was happening overhead…

This was the shape which caught my eye first. My mind assigned multiple shapes to it, naturally, and I couldn’t help but revisit it from time to time.

Then there was this view, directly toward the low autumn sun. Tendrils dangled below a cloud which drifted just above the blinding orb, giving it a fantastical appearance. Oceanic? Extraterrestrial? I can’t decide, honestly…

Then there was this in the east, a veritable maelstrom of wispy activity. Some really cool shapes developed from this wintin minutes, too. I kept pointing one direction and snapping away, then whipping to another for another barrage of shots, and back to the east to capture the wild activity downstream. It was like Val Kilmer in HEAT.

This awe-inspiring cloud continued to drift eastward past my camera, taking on more of a starship shape than the initial “alien sea creature” form which caught my eye at the first.

Back toward the sun, this one continued its jellyfish-like advance past the blazing sun. The wisps looked absolutely surreal. But the sky wasn’t done yet – there was plenty more going on in all directions.

Remember the maelstrom? It was beginning to coalesce into bolder, sharper formations, each apparently with its own turbulent agenda.

This formation suddenly shot a jet of vapor upward, as if it was launching a rocket toward the stratosphere. Even this would evolve into something wild within minutes as I snapped away below.

Gnarly, isn’t it? And it’s just getting started. While all this action was taking place to the south, there was something a little more subtle happening to the west.

This guy was all by itself in the middle of all the other commotion. Alien sea creatures morphing into space ships to the north, all kinds of chaos going off to the south, and this guy coolly drifting by in between.

Our maelstrom still had more to offer.

The formation which was jetting upward before had lopped over to the side, and now reminded me of a hand reaching upward as if to grasp something unseen. So cool.

Then these guys brought up the rear in the southern sky. If any of the formations I saw today looked like apparitions, these would be the guys. It was as if they were chasing the rest of the clouds, which had begun to move on by this point.

This cloud definitely wanted to hold its shape the longest. It did evolve from an organic shape to somewhat of a space fighter, but it held its integrity pretty tightly the whole time.

With such dynamic motion, it goes without saying that this was a short-lived encounter. I still managed plenty of cool photos within the span of a few dramatic minutes. Then it was time to head home.

I know I already got a reference in mentioning the movie HEAT, but I also had to title this post in reference to the Paul Oakenfold song. I suspect there was quite a show last night around sunset, but I wasn’t in a position to experience that. I hope you all caught some of this show or whatever the evening put on display! Keep an eye on those skies.