August 2022

August 2nd

We report altocumulus lenticularis, those stationary clouds that tend to form above mountains and other relief. In a show of the wonderfully complex forces that shape our world, these clouds are responding to turbulence in the air by forming relief of their own.

Digital painting of a dark night sky filled with bright stars and constellations.

August 1st

We report, we expected the night to be at its coldest now, but it seems to be just as warm as the day was. We have a fan on, and the window is cracked open (enough that we can hear crickets outside), but it is too hot to sleep. We are counting the blinking satellites in the sky.

Digital painting of a green field with a single house and a line of trees in the distance, and over the field, a bright blue sky filled with birds and fluffy white clouds.

August 4th

We report, these first few days of August, the wind has been bringing us a lull in our summer. Just a little less warm, just a little less dry - short showers in moments least expected. Our expert tells us this happens every summer. We do not remember what summer used to be like.

Digital painting of a sunset sky in orange and red tones. There are long, thin clouds and puffy ones right above. The sun is a bright red, oblong in shape.

August 3rd

We report: it looks as though the sun is not willing to set today. It is lying all flat against the horizon (like we lay in our bed this morning when we decided that we were going to sleep in). The sky is still a light blue, the clouds are still bright - this day might never end.

Digital painting of a starry night sky with a few clouds obscuring some of the stars. The sky is in tones of blue and purple, and the clouds lean towards an orange colour. The stars are bright.

August 5th

We report: we think the stars have been moved, we are quite certain that there might even be more of them. Sure, our planet "spins", and our sun "revolves" around the centre of our galaxy, which apparently explains why we do not always see the same stars, but this is different.

Digital painting of a crimson sunrise sky, with parts of the clouds still a dark purple, and the rest of them grazed by red sunlight.

August 7th

We report: about the sky this morning, it was so early and it was already so alive. We were caught by surprise. There was condensation dripping down the windows, the trees were swaying in the wind, and there were birds too; so much going on, and our eyes were only half open.

Digital painting of a blue lightning bolt appearing through the clouds in a dark and cloudy night sky.

August 6th

We report that when the rain started falling tonight, we stayed close to the windows in order to catch the lightning. Every second on Earth, there are about 44 lightning strikes happening; we were happy enough to catch a few of them through the clouds.

Digital painting of a sunset scene over a tall grass field. Big clouds are rising in the blue sky, bathed in golden light. There is a group of trees in the distance.

August 11th

We report: there are moments in summer when everything seems just right. There; the day is winding down. The sun is setting, and there is a little bit of a breeze. It smells like warm grass, but it is not so hot anymore. It is almost so perfect that we do not know what to do.

Digital painting of a flurry of fluffy white clouds extending under a bright blue sky.

August 8th

We report, last December, we thought about how arbitrary the end of the year is. We are thinking about it now, with these clouds going by like the credits scrolling up at the end of a movie. This could be the end of the year, and we would be ready to start a new one tomorrow.

Digital painting of a light grey sky with darker grey clouds over it. A few white birds are flying towards the top right corner of the frame.

August 9th

We report: this is a warm and grey day, and there is more water than oxygen in the air. We stepped outside and immediately started sweating. Still - no rain. The clouds are moving fast, and we think that the sky might even go back to that endless blue in just a few hours.

Digital painting of a bright blue sky with a lot of wispy white clouds of different shapes and opacities. There is a single white bird flying.

August 21st

We report: there have been many showers in the past week, and even some days when the rain would not let up. Today, the sky opened up, and the white sunlight felt a lot brighter than we remembered. Our expert pointed out that "it hasn't been that long!". We told them to be quiet.

Digital painting of a twilight sky in a gradient of blue and yellow, taken over by dark blue clouds.

August 10th

We report for this night: the sky is preparing itself for sleep, painted exactly one shade darker with every minute that passes. Clouds taking over slowly, like curtains getting drawn over an infinity, like the tide coming in. We feel tired enough to be grateful for the dark.

Digital painting of a countryside landscape in the early morning, with a layer of fog over the ground. There are lines of trees in the distance, the sky is tinted a pastel yellow with a few clouds, and some black birds are flying across the frame.

August 12th

We report radiation fog on a calm morning, early for the season. The night was clear and there was almost no wind, so the layers of air in the atmosphere stayed separate - dry in the upper levels, and humid near the ground, where it soon reached its dew point.

Digital painting of a bright blue sky with a fluffy white cloud coming up from the bottom of the frame. On the upper side of the frame, a few tree branches are peeking down, full of green leaves.

August 13th

We report: we have been on a hike the whole day, it is the middle of the afternoon, and the sun is at its zenith. Our expert's hair is all frizzy, surrounding their face like a halo in the sunshine, and their cheeks have gotten rosy from the effort of the walk.

Digital painting of a heavy sky with clouds going through every shade of grey, and a thin strip of blue sky underneath.

August 14th

We report, before the rain started falling, we watched the clouds come in with a sense of glee. We were not quite sure whether they were bringing rain at first, but then the sky darkened and the clouds thickened, and soon enough, we could barely see through the sheets of rain.

Digital painting of a starry night sky, split in half by clouds. The sky is almost black above the clouds, and a lighter grey underneath. There are a few dark clouds at the bottom of the frame as well, with a very faint pink highlight on top of them.

August 15th

We report: the sky has been cloudy at night through the peak of the perseids, and even now it remains so - but we have managed to find a few shooting stars in the space between the clouds. We take deep breaths in the dark to shake the stars behind our eyes.

Digital painting of a sunset sky in orange and pink shades, with a few tall and dark clouds rising into it. There are some power lines running towards the horizon from the left-hand side.

August 16th

We report, down on the ground where the rain has made pools, the air is a little bit chilly and smells like wet rock, mineral and organic, solid. Up there, the colours are all layered up, sediments made out of ice and sunlight. The rainwater is slowly sinking into the earth.

Digital painting of a countryside landscape: there are a few trees in the foreground and on the horizon line, and a dirt path leading into the distance. There is a big blue sky with long, fluffy white clouds. It's a sunny day.

August 17th

We report: the days of August are still long, and the shadows that the sun casts on these days are still short. The sky is still full of dust, with the horizon permanently clouded over. But even then, we can feel how summer is now beginning to stretch thinner.

Digital painting of a blue hour sky, before dawn. The sky is a light blue, half-covered by swirling, dark blue clouds. There is a black bird flying way up high.

August 18th

We report, in between two dreams (nonsense dreams, foggy images and whispers, barely more than that), the sky is coming alive before the sun has even risen. The blue light that is coming through the window is not enough to make us open our eyes all the way.

Digital painting of a grey cloudy sky, with defined wave-like formations.

August 19th

We report: it is a day for storms, heavy and muggy. Everyone that we have met today has been a little bit antsy, a little bit touchy. No storms yet, so far, although the cloud formation in the sky is enough to make us think something is bound to happen.

Digital painting of a sunset scene over a dark sea, with red clouds in a dark sky. In the centre of the frame, right above the horizon, there is a small, bright green spot.

August 20th

We report a green flash at sunset. We were not looking to see a green flash today - you do not really plan out these things, you see. It felt like it was already too late for it to happen. We were ready to go home, but we looked back one last time, and that is when we saw it.

Digital painting of a night sky right around the tail end of twilight, turquoise above the horizon, and going into a gradient of dark blue in the higher parts of the sky. There are black silhouettes of trees and phone lines, and there is a waning moo

August 22nd

We report, from the moon watch: we still have a moon. Everyone may now sleep soundly, search parties may stop looking, babies can stop crying, and the sun can finish setting, for the moon is still shining up there. We are certainly eager for some well-deserved rest.

Digital painting of an overcast sky in shades of light grey.

August 23rd

We report: the wind is coming from a cardinal point that we did not know existed until now, and it is making noises that are akin to some we have heard in scary movies. We think that this means autumn might be on the way, though the day is still warm.

Digital painting of a sunset or sunrise sky in golden tones, with fluffy clouds in a pastel blue sky.

August 24th

We report that we do not fully understand most things, on account of them being numerous and infinitely complex. One thing that we do fully understand, though: in the event of a good sunrise or sunset, it is paramount that we stop and stare for no less than a full minute.

Digital painting of a sky horizontally split in half, one side blue with transparent white clouds, and the other filled with one big grey cloud.

August 25th

We report receiving truly impressive amounts of rain on our face under a sky that was not even that cloudy to begin with. We could swear that there was this one incredibly heavy cloud that would float out of sight, only to come back when the wind turned. We felt targeted, too.

Digital painting of a night scene on the seaside. The sky is not completely dark yet, and the sea is calm, just a little frothy on the shore. There is artificial light coming from the off-frame, lighting the beach, and the waves.

August 26th

We report: the day was warm and bright today - also, we got sunburnt on the nose because we forgot to reapply sunscreen. Just before sunset, though, the air got very humid, and then pretty cold. We noticed that the change in weather did not mean that our nose hurt any less.

Digital painting of a pink and purple sunrise sky, with different gradients and outlines of clouds visible. There is a single black bird flying up there.

August 27th

We report, this morning, we woke up early because we had not closed the window last night. There were moths on the walls, dew on the window frame, and also mosquito bites on our legs. The room was freezing, but bathed in a pink light that kept our spirits high even as we sneezed.

Digital painting of a dark grey cloudy sky over a mature wheat field in core tones. There is a mountain range in the background.

August 28th

We report: this wheat has not been harvested yet; we are not too sure why. Maybe in this place, winter wheat gets harvested later than what we are used to. In the meantime, the field is still but noisy, full of cicadas, and the sky is leaden. The heat in between is crushing.

Digital painting of a view of fluffy clouds from up high, with shiny white, grey and blue tones.

August 29th

We report: summer is waning, the sun's course is getting lower in the sky every day. We are thinking about when the season began, and we did not want to part with spring - but the feeling is always a little bit more complicated with summer. It is a different type of melancholia.

Digital painting of some comma-shaped cirrus clouds in a blue sky.

August 30th

We report, today, our expert told us that cirrus let some solar radiation through, but they keep warm air from rising, which may stop storms from fully forming. No storm in sight though, and this morning, we are raising the collar of our jacket against the wind.

Digital painting of a sunset sky, a big dark cloud in an orange sky with its edges shining yellow from the sun behind it.

August 31st

We report an erosion in the sky tonight - hard to tell whether the sun was trying to eat at the clouds, or the clouds were latching onto the sun, wrapping themselves around it and swallowing it. If we could tear clouds right down the middle, maybe there would be sunshine there.

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