Van's Air Force
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What is this cloud formation?
- Thread starter scard
- Start date
brad walton
Well Known Member
Collapsing Cumulonimbus
It looks to me like the anvil portion of a cumulonimbus that has collapsed and left the anvil hanging. It appears that there is virga falling away below the cloud.
It looks to me like the anvil portion of a cumulonimbus that has collapsed and left the anvil hanging. It appears that there is virga falling away below the cloud.
az_gila
Well Known Member
It looks like two different air masses, with different water vapor levels, were meeting along a line.
The round cloud could be a cumulus in the drier section, and forming at a higher level than the cloud bank edge in the picture.
The vertical bit could be caused by the higher cloud thermal pulling in some of the moister air from the other air mass.
Just one theory.... was the line of clouds in you picture demarking a line between clear air and clouds?
The round cloud could be a cumulus in the drier section, and forming at a higher level than the cloud bank edge in the picture.
The vertical bit could be caused by the higher cloud thermal pulling in some of the moister air from the other air mass.
Just one theory.... was the line of clouds in you picture demarking a line between clear air and clouds?
Sid Lambert
Well Known Member
Death of a thunderstorm. We saw one over South Dakota this week on our way back from Idaho.The tops were over 50K at one point I think but then it just fell apart leaving just a halo as the stage after your picture.
Yes, I believe it was at a boundary.
The top of that cloud and all the others around weren't very high. Maybe 16K' max. The top of that one was perfectly flat with no vertical development.
Jimboscr
Well Known Member
It could be ice Virga
There is a great web site for your cloud fix. Its the cloud appreciation society, and you can access it at: http://cloudappreciationsociety.org/
The cloud you saw could be a type of virga, have a look at the pic below. Its full title is Altocumulus (ice) Virga.
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j448/jimboscr/50virgajurgenoste.jpg
Jim
There is a great web site for your cloud fix. Its the cloud appreciation society, and you can access it at: http://cloudappreciationsociety.org/
The cloud you saw could be a type of virga, have a look at the pic below. Its full title is Altocumulus (ice) Virga.
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j448/jimboscr/50virgajurgenoste.jpg
Jim
Last edited:
Very cool resource. Thanks for sharing.
rvmills
Well Known Member
Pulling from an old meteorology class...so its archival data from my pourous hard drive, and definitely non-tech...
Kinda looks like the cumulous clouds are forming in a band of air that has an unstable lapse rate, and that one cloud pushed higher, and up to a band of air that has a decidedly stable lapse rate...so it stopped climbing and just spread out. Or perhaps there is a shear layer of wind there, and the result was the same. Just a couple ideas...but it is a very neat looking cloud!
I saw this a few weeks ago on the job. This one cloud did a similar overachieving push to the sky, but didn't spread out (perhaps just different atmospherics at play...it didn't hit a glass ceiling...it just turned into Woody the Woodpecker)
. But the initial push skywards from a lower layer reminded me of your pic.
Cheers,
Bob
Kinda looks like the cumulous clouds are forming in a band of air that has an unstable lapse rate, and that one cloud pushed higher, and up to a band of air that has a decidedly stable lapse rate...so it stopped climbing and just spread out. Or perhaps there is a shear layer of wind there, and the result was the same. Just a couple ideas...but it is a very neat looking cloud!
I saw this a few weeks ago on the job. This one cloud did a similar overachieving push to the sky, but didn't spread out (perhaps just different atmospherics at play...it didn't hit a glass ceiling...it just turned into Woody the Woodpecker)
. But the initial push skywards from a lower layer reminded me of your pic.
Cheers,
Bob
mannanj
Well Known Member
Cloud
I'm no meteroligist, so I'm guessing at this. It looks to me like the darker area below the cloud is smoke rising from a fire. This brings up with it moist unstable air that continues to rise because of the heat, then condenses in the cooler air.
It looks like wind shear is moving the condensed moisture above the cloud base in a slightly different direction than the column of rising air.
I've seen this before from a fire.
There we were, chugging along over the desert at 12.5K' sucking on O2 and we come across this cloud. What is it, how does it form??
I'm no meteroligist, so I'm guessing at this. It looks to me like the darker area below the cloud is smoke rising from a fire. This brings up with it moist unstable air that continues to rise because of the heat, then condenses in the cooler air.
It looks like wind shear is moving the condensed moisture above the cloud base in a slightly different direction than the column of rising air.
I've seen this before from a fire.
I was at a weather conference last fall for both pilots and meteorologists, and in one of the presentations, the pilot-presenter had a slide filled with clouds like you show. She flies out of an airport north of Taos, and her presentation was all about the 'signposts in the sky.'
One of the audience members asked her what those clouds told her, and she answered that there was, temporarily at least, a stable layer capping off the vertical development. In the case of her particular flight, she used this info to determine that she could proceed the 30-45 minutes she needed to before convection took over and led to more development.
We call them jellyfish clouds here, too.
One of the audience members asked her what those clouds told her, and she answered that there was, temporarily at least, a stable layer capping off the vertical development. In the case of her particular flight, she used this info to determine that she could proceed the 30-45 minutes she needed to before convection took over and led to more development.
We call them jellyfish clouds here, too.
that's quite clearly his propeller
mannanj
Well Known Member
