2018-07-19 Thu

Canada Post released its second set of "Weather Wonders" stamps on 26th July featuring photographs of different beautiful weather conditions like steam fog, a waterspout, lenticular clouds, light pillars and a moon halo.

The first stamp features a steam fog over a lake in British Columbia. Sea smoke or steam fog is formed when cold air flows over warmer water. The second stamp features a waterspout over Lake Ontario. These rotating funnel clouds over water can either be mild or tornadic. The third stamp features lenticular clouds or lens-shaped clouds which mostly appear over mountains. This particular photograph on the stamp features lenticular clouds over the mountains of Alberta’s Jasper National Park. The last two stamps feature light pillars and a moon halo, respectively, both of which are caused due to airborne ice crystals. The photo on this stamp features light pillars caused by the artificial lights of the city of North Bay reflecting off ice crystals. The moon halo effect was photographed at the city’s Rainbow Park.

The set includes five nondenominated permanent-rate stamps that pay basic domestic rate (85¢). The self-adhesive version is available in a booklet of 10 with five stamps of each design while the souvenir sheet comes with five stamps with moisture-activated gum. Microtype descriptions in English and French about the phenomena are hidden in various locations of the stamps and can be spotted only by using a magnifying glass.

The stamps and souvenir sheet were designed by Entro Communications. Lowe-Martin printed 400,000 booklets of 10 and 85,000 souvenir sheets by four-color lithography. The steam fog photo is featured on the booklet cover.

An illustration of antique weather-monitoring equipment is featured on the selvage of the souvenir sheet. Names of the printer, designer, and photographers; a thank-you note to Environment and Climate Change; and symbolic images of three clouds and the sun in the basic printing colours of cyan, magenta, yellow and black are also a part of the selvage.

7,000 official first-day covers were released which carry the souvenir sheet and are postmarked in North Bay, Ont. The cancel mark is in the shape of an anemometer which is used to measure wind speed. A similar background illustration of antique weather monitoring equipment is also depicted on the souvenir sheet.

Image Courtesy: Canada Post