Cloud of the Month

One of the good things about living in these overheated parts is that we get tremendous cloud formations, leading to even more tremendous sunsets and afterglows. The past few weeks have provided less rain than we needed, but some remarkable skies as compensation. This evening's, though, may have been the best of the bunch. This cloud here is like the Platonic ideal of thunderheads:

Fifteen minutes after this shot was taken, the same cloud and its almost-as-beautiful siblings were glowing a pale white against the Prussian blue of the heavens to the northeast. And then lightning started to make them glow from within, like Chinese lanterns slowly bouncing in the breeze.