I will have to ask you all to indulge the weather geek in me for the last two images of this set. :) This was not actually taken in Jamaica, but rather on the flight between Montego Bay and Atlanta. As I've mentioned a few times in this set, thunderstorms are constant in the tropics in late summer, and this was a massive cell over the Carribean that our pilot had to steer around.
Thunderstorms tend to grow in size during the day, rising through air fueled by the heat of the sun. Large ones eventually hit a boundary layer, called the tropopause, which separates two atmospheric layers: the troposphere (closer to earth) and stratosphere (higher up). In most cases, the temperature differential at the tropopause halts further progression of the cloud, and it spreads out along the boundary, forming the classic "anvil" shape you see here. Again, as a guy who loves interesting weather and clouds, it was a rare treat to get a true "bird's eye" view of this one from around 30,000 feet.
Thunderstorms tend to grow in size during the day, rising through air fueled by the heat of the sun. Large ones eventually hit a boundary layer, called the tropopause, which separates two atmospheric layers: the troposphere (closer to earth) and stratosphere (higher up). In most cases, the temperature differential at the tropopause halts further progression of the cloud, and it spreads out along the boundary, forming the classic "anvil" shape you see here. Again, as a guy who loves interesting weather and clouds, it was a rare treat to get a true "bird's eye" view of this one from around 30,000 feet.