Nephology over Langbaugh Ridge

Saturday morning, a freshly mown field near Great Ayton, and a cloud with no intention of staying around. Looking north-west across the Tees valley, with Langbaugh Ridge on the right, I was bemused by this seemingly grey slab hanging in a largely blue sky. Ten minutes or so later it had almost gone.

That ridge is the Tertiary Cleveland Dyke, formed over a million years ago. The sky above it proved rather less permanent.

Starting way up top, there are clearly streaks of cirrus fibratus lining up with the high-level winds. Lower down, we have no wind. The grey band along the distant horizon has the smooth, flat top that fog often has under an inversion, and inversions are most common in autumn and winter ¹MetService. Blog post on valley fog and inversions. MetService Blog, blog.metservice.com/node/1150. [Retrieved 31 October 2026]²OutdoorsMagic.com. “How to Witness a Cloud Inversion” (title taken from the page address). OutdoorsMagic.com,. https://outdoorsmagic.com/article/how-to-witness-a-cloud-inversion/ [yRetrieved 31 October 2026]. The slab of cloud sitting between the two is, by my guess, a detached piece of that lower layer. Stratus fragments are a short stage in a layer forming or breaking up, and drier air can evaporate the cloud, ³“Clouds of the Day, Tuesday, May 9, 2023.” Weather Briefing, 2023, weatherbriefing.com/weather-blog/2023/5/10/clouds-of-the-day-tuesday-may-9-2023. [Retrieved 31 October 2026] which would account for the vanishing act.

An obvious alternative suspect here is that part of a sea fret over the Tees, but these usually occur in spring and summer ⁴“What Is Sea Fret? How Coastal Fog Clouds Our Warm Summer Days in the North East.” Hartlepool Mail, hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/what-is-sea-fret-how-coastal-fog-clouds-our-warm-summer-days-in-the-north-east-350161. [Retrieved 31 October 2026]. I doubt it but it cannot be ruled out. The Met Office’s overnight records would help, if it were that important.

• 1
  MetService. Blog post on valley fog and inversions. MetService Blog, blog.metservice.com/node/1150. [Retrieved 31 October 2026] ↩︎
• 2
  OutdoorsMagic.com. “How to Witness a Cloud Inversion” (title taken from the page address). OutdoorsMagic.com,. https://outdoorsmagic.com/article/how-to-witness-a-cloud-inversion/ [yRetrieved 31 October 2026] ↩︎
• 3
  “Clouds of the Day, Tuesday, May 9, 2023.” Weather Briefing, 2023, weatherbriefing.com/weather-blog/2023/5/10/clouds-of-the-day-tuesday-may-9-2023. [Retrieved 31 October 2026] ↩︎
• 4
  “What Is Sea Fret? How Coastal Fog Clouds Our Warm Summer Days in the North East.” Hartlepool Mail, hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/what-is-sea-fret-how-coastal-fog-clouds-our-warm-summer-days-in-the-north-east-350161. [Retrieved 31 October 2026] ↩︎