The last time we were at the beach we witnessed a pretty neat event. Though it was a bright and sunny day, we could see a storm building in the distance.
Playa del Carmen (or Playa as the locals call it) faces into the east, and between us and the rest of the Caribbean lays the (Mexican) island of Cozumel. On a typical clear day you can make out many of the buildings on the island’s main town, San Miguel. This day was no different, until we saw the skies begin to darken. Slowly the clouds started to come together to form the storm. Sections of the cloud clusters were turning a greyish-blue colour. The neat thing was that the formation was happening, from what we could see, only in the southern part of the island. The northern section was still bright and sunny. When your point of view is from the sand, across the water, you really aren’t sure if the storm is brewing over Cozumel or in the bay of water between us and them. We continued to watch and see if the storm would blow over (as it so often does) or if we would need to gather our belongings before getting rained on.
After several minutes I pulled out my phone to snap a picture of the beautiful cloud formation. As I lowered my hand the bright section appeared in the middle of the dark clouds. It looked like someone was literally shinning down a spotlight through the clouds. We looked for the sun then to try and see how it was shinning through a small break in the clouds to form the “spotlight”. It was a really beautiful sight, Mother Nature creates such beautiful things.
We continued to watch the skies and the bright spot that kept growing. After about seven minutes some small white clouds appeared in the middle of the bright section. Slowly it grew and grew until they came together. It was a stunning sight to witness and one I’ve never seen before.
Slowly the clouds changed and continue to move in the sky. We could see the rain falling in the sea far away from us. The stormed got closer and closer to land but instead of reaching us it moved south and no more than a couple of rain drops fell on us. We were lucky and so, continued with our sunbathing.
I hope enjoyed these photos and that they make your day just a little bit brighter.
P.S.
Do you love mashed potatoes as much as I do? Check out my recipe for “Love Handle Mashed Potatoes with a Smoky Kick”, can you see what give them their kick? ;) Enjoy (click on the photo to get recipe)
I love these moments at the beach when a storm is forming in the distance. It’s a comforting feeling when the weather is warm but you can feel the electricity in the air. Nancy this is a special shot, the light effect in the middle is something I hadn’t seen before. I bet something like this could have been seen as something divine by some, no?
I wish I could have your beach around here, ours here have been destroyed over the past 5 years…
It’s Mother Nature’s divinity.:) Sorry to hear about your beach being destroyed, that’s horrible. I worry about that here if the city keeps growing and growing. Thank you!