Rare wave-like clouds spotted at Smith Mountain Lake. In the descending part of the wave, those clouds will evaporate due to adiabaticheating, leading to the characteristic clouded and clear ban… Part I: Wave Clouds. Lenticular clouds are eerie because they seem to hover in place. When attached to the underside of low, gloomy clouds like nimbostratus, they give the impression of the cloud being streaked and smudged towards the ground. The “cloud” is actually sea spray, aerosol particles that are formed directly from the ocean, mostly by ejection into the atmosphere by bursting bubbles at the air-sea interface (definition via Wikipedia). The observatory explained that the rare phenomenon, called a KH-lenticular or Kelvin-Helmholtz wave cloud, "forms when a large increase in winds … Baker, B. The prettiest jellyfish skies occur mostly with high clouds that tend to form individual cloudlets, like altocumulus and cirrocumulus. on. Since then, a sprinkling of variations and sub-classifications has been added to Howard's work, leaving us with a rich nomenclature that has remained unchanged since 1951. Lenticular clouds are eerie because they seem to hover in place, even in a steady wind. These rare clouds were spotted over southern Michigan Wednesday evening. Rare wave-shaped clouds spotted in Virginia A photo of some wave-shaped clouds is making the rounds on social media and it may have you wondering if it's legit. There are a number of theories about how the clouds develop. These clouds form high in the sky, and the afternoon sun catching their underbellies gives them a dappled, silvery sheen. … Members of the Society had been sending in photographs of "the cloud with no name": striking skyscapes that looked like a choppy sea viewed from below. Northern Colorado. Transcript for Rare wave-shaped clouds hover over VA skyline Under this happened on this Thursday morning starting with quite a sight in the sky news wave clouds Hulu alone adult fat. If the speed difference is just right, the tops of the denser ripples can roll up, surge forwards, and tip over in a series of vortices, just like a breaking ocean wave. Cade Hughes said he and his wife were relaxing on … Read about our approach to external linking. For thousands of years, mankind has gazed skyward with a mixture of awe and wonder at the beauty and variety of clouds such as these 5 Rare Mind-blowing Cloud Types. ... Quite often, these clouds will form with cirrus, altocumulus, stratocumulus, and stratus clouds. The photo shared on social media captured clouds that look like ocean waves in the sky. Mackerel-type cirrocumulus can be an indicator of warm winds lifting up and flowing out from a distant thunderstorm. They are wave clouds and their undulating sheet-like forms reveal the winds and waves of the stratosphere. This rare cloud looks like breaking ocean waves. But it only lasts a few minutes before dispersing without a trace. Singapore residents posted a photo of the massive clouds to Twitter on Monday morning. These spooky forms appear downwind of mountains. Evaporation of the cloud causes a downdraft on the edges that erodes the cloud, forming a roll. As it flows upwards and cools, the moisture in the air condenses to form clouds at the crests of the standing wave. They look like a sky full of floating jellyfish, their dangling tendrils being swept away by the wind. A mountain range can form a series of long wave clouds, but if the speed bump is more isolated, like a single mountain, the result can be oval-shaped clouds that look like UFOs,” explained physicist Patrick Chuang for Wired.com. When gentle ripples begin to form across the entire sky, it's a good bet that the storm or its remnants will arrive in just a few hours. These rare … Asperitas clouds are so unusual, they weren't officially recognised until June 2015. Here’s what caused those rare wave clouds over Denver on Sunday night Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds were spotted over parts of the Denver metro area on Sunday night, an extremely rare … Pretor-Pinney proposed the name asperatus, meaning "roughened" or "agitated". As the crystals fall back down, they change from ice to water vapour. That's because cirrus clouds – thin, wispy, collections of ice crystals – are harbingers of change. … "Kelvin-Helmholtz waves develop due … (Photo Credit: Ken Jones) KDKA meteorologist Ray Petelin says these are Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds, “a very rare cloud pattern that is caused by velocity shear.” Worthington, R. M. "Lenticular wave cloud above the convective boundary layer of the Rocky Mountains," Weather 57(2002):87–90. Photo Credit: Jamie Morath Heynes KDKA meteorologist Ray Petelin weighed in on what caused the clouds to form. The composition of the ice is currently an active topic of study. The resulting instability causes the breaking wave formation, both in the ocean and the air. When clouds happen to form at the horizontal boundary, this invisible air process is briefly made visible. These rare clouds, sometimes called mother-of-pearl clouds, are 15 – 25km (9 -16 miles) high in the stratosphere and well above tropospheric clouds. As physicists William Kelvin and Hermann von Helmholtz discovered, the difference in the speeds and densities of these fluids creates a shearing force where they meet, producing undulations in the boundary between the two. These clouds rarely form on windy and unstable days, but when conditions are just right, the natural phenomenon, known as Kelvin-Helmholtz Waves, occurs. In a storm system, virga frequently precede heavy rains when the air below the cloud isn't yet humid enough to support full precipitation. The upper layers of air are moving at higher speeds and will often scoop the top of the cloud layer into these wave-like rolling structures. In a storm system, virga frequently precede heavy rains. 1. The air cools as it rises and, if there is enough moisture in the air, the water condenses and forms clouds. A rare and short-lived cloud formation was spotted over Auckland as the sun was setting yesterday evening. Tour guide Dave Lacey of South Coast Tours, the same folks who captured the mola mola sighting near Thomas Creek Bridge earlier this month, took this photo of the clouds on Friday.. Meteorologist Brad Schaaf of Medford’s National Weather Service office told the Outpost that the clouds are a rare … The "morning glory" is a very rare example of a type of wave cloud. These rare clouds, sometimes called mother-of-pearl clouds, are 15 – 25km (9 -16 miles) high in the stratosphere and well above tropospheric clouds. [1] Often, ice crystals can be found downwind of the waves. A rare series of 5 unique images showing the formation of Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds from a base of altocumulus over South-East England in August 2018. This cools the surrounding air, causing it to sink. Supercells can produce treacherous winds, tennis-ball-sized hailstones and flash floods. Also, clouds don’t form at very low altitude like in this video. These clouds look like ocean waves, and can be a sign of turbulence in the sky. Author: Tim Buckley Rare clouds require the right conditions in order to occur. A rare formation of clouds wowed onlookers at Virginia's Smith Mountain Lake on Tuesday.. Rare ‘Wave-Shaped’ Clouds Hovering Over Singapore Skyline Caught On Camera. That is, until now. Given enough instability, moisture, and lift, the hefty cloud becomes electrified. Explore similar videos at Adobe Stock Because the clouds form at altitudes of over 15,000m, the Sun keeps illuminating them even when – from the point of view of people on Earth's surface – it is just below the horizon. Often seen bulging from the anvil of a severe thunderstorm or from the ragged clouds in a storm's wake, they usually indicate that the worst weather has passed. ONE of the world’s most spectacular clouds made a dramatic entrance for passengers on an … These rare clouds, sometimes called mother-of-pearl clouds, are 15 – 25km (9 -16 miles) high in the stratosphere and well above tropospheric clouds. It is a mid-to-high level cloud . Photo Credit: Jamie Morath Heynes KDKA meteorologist Ray Petelin weighed in on what caused the clouds to form. They are relatively easy to study, because they are quite consistent. facebook; twitter ... “Wave clouds form in a stable atmosphere where the cloud itself isn’t able to develop into a vertical state because it … Their name derives from the Latin mamma, which means "udder" or "breast", and they can extend over many hundreds of miles of cloud. Our language of clouds dates back to 1802, when amateur scientist and earnest sky watcher Luke Howard delivered a lecture tntitled "On the Modifications of Clouds". Most group members said they had never seen such an incredible phenomenon before – but there was a reason the rare waves had formed in the clouds. The ice crystals are mostly small spheroidal and irregular-shaped particles. Under certain conditions, long strings of lenticular clouds can form, creating a formation known as a wave cloud. Kelvin-Helmholtz wave clouds are formed when there is … Multi-level mountain wave clouds form when the moisture in the air above the mountain is located in distinct layers, and vertical mixing is inhibited. What sets them apart from regular violent storms is a persistent rotating updraft called a mesocyclone, which allows the storm to sustain itself over many hours. Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds look like breaking waves in the ocean. These tubes get caught in the updraft and tilt upwards into the storm. [2], Wave clouds are typically mid- to upper-tropospheric ice clouds. As a result, the cloud puffs downwards. In an ideal model, a wave cloud consists of supercooled liquid water at the lower part, a mixed phase of frozen and liquid water near the ridge, and ice beginning slightly below the ridge and extending downstream. It is in these regions of highest vertical velocity that sailplanes can reach record-breaking altitudes.[1]. Fallstreak holes can grow as large as 50km in just one hour. [1], It is possible that simple convection from mountain summits can also form wave clouds. 12 pp. As the air spills over the other side, the pull of gravity causes it to overshoot a little before resurging back up. A Singapore resident captured a rare cloud formation hovering over the Singapore skyline near her home. Kelvin–Helmholtz cloud formations, named after Lord Kelvin and Hermann von Helmholtz, are extremely rare. If there is enough moisture in the atmosphere, clouds will form at the cooled crests of these waves. These super rare wave-shaped clouds were photographed yesterday in Erie. They are most commonly spotted rolling across the North American plains. But what about waves in the sky? Yet, only in the last few centuries have we begun to understand the complex interaction of forces which forms and shapes clouds. High altitude can be another contributing factor, simply because there is more air for the rain to fall through before reaching the ground. They are the first new type of cloud to be identified in over half a century. No particular order in how ‘rare’ they are though. All tornadoes are associated with supercells, although not all supercells produce tornadoes. 3160–3185, "Cloud Crystals - Columns & Plates - Atmospheric Optics", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wave_cloud&oldid=994008655, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 13 December 2020, at 17:52. Incredible photos in Auckland show wave-like clouds rippling across the sky. Rare wave cloud spotted from Virgin Australia jet ONE of the world’s most spectacular clouds made a dramatic entrance for passengers on an … If the wave continues, a series of roll clouds, called a street, can form. Without these seed particles, the droplets must be cooled below -40°C before they will freeze. [3], The streamlines in these clouds have the steepest slope a few kilometers downwind of the lee slope of a mountain. These super rare wave-shaped clouds were photographed yesterday in Erie. Fallstreak holes can grow as large as 50km in just one hour. Virga are often seen in desert areas, where precipitation quickly evaporates in the warmer, drier air beneath the cloud. On rare occasions, they may also occur with cumulus clouds. As an air mass travels through the wave, it undergoes repeated uplift and descent. This became known as Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability (KHI). Their destructive might is second only to hurricanes. ... Quite often, these clouds will form with cirrus, altocumulus, stratocumulus, and stratus clouds. LAKEWOOD, Ohio -- You’re used to waves on Lake Erie. These begin as dense, billowing white towers, formed when warm, moist air is carried swiftly upwards by powerful convection currents. These clouds rarely form on windy and unstable days, but when conditions are just right, the natural phenomenon, known as Kelvin-Helmholtz Waves, occurs. This sets up a system where the up- and downdrafts become separated, allowing the storm to maintain its rage for hours. "Mackerel sky and mares' tails make tall ships carry low sails." When air temperatures drop below -83°C, small amounts of moisture in the otherwise dry stratosphere condense into wispy clouds of ice crystals. The clouds are known as Kelvin-Helmholtz instability waves and are named after the scientists who studied the physics behind them. Rare wave clouds rolled through the sky over Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia on Tuesday: ‘It was so amazing’ ... Kelvin-Helmholtz wave clouds don’t last long. Wallace, John M., Hobbs, Peter V. Atmospheric Science, and Introductory Survey. Wave cloud structure ranges from smooth and simple, to jumbled phases occurring randomly. The rare wave-shaped clouds, known as Kelvin-Helmholtz instability waves, were spotted and photographed by Amy Christie Hunter, who later shared the picture on Facebook. A rare formation of clouds wowed onlookers at Virginia's Smith Mountain Lake on Tuesday.. The cloud base on the leeward side is higher than on the windward side, because precipitation on the windward side removes water from the air. As the rain or snow evaporates away, it cools the surrounding air while increasing its humidity, until finally conditions are ripe for rain to pour. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences: Vol. Named for the French "nacré", meaning "mother of pearl", nacreous clouds form close to the poles in the extreme cold of winter. ... Also referred to as billow clouds, wind row clouds, or wave clouds, variations of the undulatus can be elements that have merged or single elements that have stretched through the sky. Lidiya. Despite their ominous appearance, they tend to dissipate without turning into storms themselves. When moving air encounters an obstacle like a mountain, it is forced to rise up and over it. However, this doesn't always occur. The clouds are called Kelvin Helmholtz clouds… A stable air mass will continue to rise and dip for a little while as it travels away from the mountain, setting up an invisible "standing wave". However, once rain starts falling, it causes a downdraft of cool, dense air. Understanding this can improve climate models. Stock Footage of Asperitas Wave Clouds are Rare Indeed. The atmospheric internal waves that form wave clouds are created as stable air flows over a raised land feature such as a mountain range, and can form either directly above or in the lee of the feature. It's just the points where they condense and evaporate that are fixed, creating a well-defined cloud that hangs motionless in the sky. "The base of these clouds is often above 16,500 feet (5,029 meters), as this is where the difference in wind speed in the atmosphere tends to be greatest," adds weather forecaster and former BBC Weatherman, Liam Dutton. Supercells are the least common kind of thunderstorm. In the descending part of the wave, those clouds will evaporate due to adiabatic heating, leading to the characteristic clouded and clear bands. Mammatus clouds are rounded, pouch-like protrusions that hang from the undersides of clouds. These turbulent atmospheric waves are a sign that the air is extremely unstable. Like lenticular clouds, they have been mistaken for UFOs, but they are arguably at their most dramatic at sunset, when they appear like fiery wounds to the sky. Like all good folk sayings, there is some truth to this one. After wind blows up and over a barrier, like a mountain, the air continues flowing through the atmosphere in a wavelike pattern. Published. Wave clouds got their name because they look like waves. The rare wave-shaped clouds, known as Kelvin-Helmholtz instability waves, were spotted and photographed by Amy Christie Hunter, who later shared the … And a brief description of each. Typical thunderstorms develop from cumulonimbus clouds. This is a list of what I believe to be the top 10 rarest cloud formations. 3 November 2020. This sinks and flows out of the base of the cloud, smothering the updraft and starving the storm of energy. Bad, bad clouds! Amy Christie Hunter spotted the wave-shaped clouds on … Scientists now want to find out how asperitas clouds form. They form from small amounts of moisture in the air ahead of approaching weather fronts. Nacreous clouds, sometimes called mother-of-pearl clouds, are rare but once seen are never forgotten. Also known as hole-punch clouds, these are holes or slashes that appear in layers of mid-to-high-level cloud, when a patch of moisture suddenly starts to freeze and fall. As you might imagine, weather conditions have to be just right for these wave-like clouds to appear. SkyTrak 13 Meteorologist Sean Ash says they're a "somewhat rare type of wave clouds." San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 1977. The photo shared on social media captured clouds that look like ocean waves in the sky. As the crystals fall back down, they change from ice to water vapour. Named for their smooth, lentil-like appearance, altocumulus lenticularis clouds (pictured above) are believed to be one of the most common explanations for UFO sightings. A woman spotted a rare cloud formation over Smith Moutain in Virginia and shared the perplexing photo with a Facebook group. Essentially, mammatus are upside-down clouds formed from sinking pockets of cold, moist air. Wave clouds (sometimes called undulatus or billow clouds) like these are the product of atmospheric gravity waves. The descending ice leaves a rounded hole in the cloud layer, which expands swiftly outwards as the frozen boundary spreads. The ice crystals scatter and diffract light, making the clouds glow with iridescent colours against the dark pre-dawn or post-dusk skies. ©Cherie Ude, shown with permission. A stunning rare cloud formation, also known as the ‘morning glory’ cloud, has been captured on film by an airline passenger traveling across Australia. Rare Wave-Like Clouds Spotted In Erie – CBS Pittsburgh Share or comment on this article: Rare cloud phenomena called Kelvin-Helmholtz waves spotted above Virginia mountain The wave doesn’t touch a cloud. Also called mother of pearl clouds or sun dogs, these rare clouds are rarely seen, but once you do, you most definitely won’t forget them. Though beautiful, these turbulent atmospheric waves are a sign that the air is extremely unstable and may be dangerous to aircraft. The crashing wave pattern is caused when swift, warm air flows over a colder, denser, more sluggish layer. Now that's a flying saucer! By. Nacreous Clouds. That rule of thumb became all-too relevant recently when an unbelievably rare cloud formation known as Kelvin-Helmholtz instability waves appeared in the sky over Smith Mountain Lake. ... the clouds will whip up into wave-like shapes. As a result, these storms typically dissipate within about 30 minutes of starting. The photo shared on social media captured clouds that look like ocean waves in the sky. 4. Nacreous Clouds. Supercells can produce treacherous winds, tennis-ball-sized hailstones and flash floods. On rare occasions, they may also occur with cumulus clouds. When gentle ripples begin to form across the entire sky, it's a good bet that the storm or its remnants will arrive. Rare wave-like clouds known as Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds were spotted above Brookings last week. So goes an old mariners' rhyme, referring to skies of rippled cirrocumulus clouds that resemble the striped scale pattern of a mackerel. Ridges of cloud form where water vapour cools and condenses, while troughs of space form where it warms and re-evaporates. 'In the case of these cloud patterns, the winds are moving faster at the top of the cloud, than the winds at the bottom of the cloud, just like how waves are created on water. These rare clouds, sometimes called mother-of-pearl clouds, are 15 – 25km (9 -16 miles) high in the stratosphere and well above tropospheric clouds. Advertisement Clouds that look more like breaking ocean waves created a dramatic scene in the western Virginia sky on Tuesday evening. As the humid air bubbles up into cooler parts of the atmosphere, the moisture condenses, transforming fluffy cotton-wool clouds into a massive, lumbering rain cloud. In a supercell, vertical wind shear creates huge horizontal tubes of spinning air. Rare wave-like clouds spotted in Virginia. The observatory explained that the rare phenomenon, called a KH-lenticular or Kelvin-Helmholtz wave cloud, "forms when a large increase in winds occurs over a small vertical distance within a cloud." One of the rarest and most fleeting formations, this cartoon-like breaking wave is the Holy Grail for many cloud-spotters. They all hinge on sharp differences in temperature and humidity between the cloud and the underlying air, and pronounced wind shear at the boundary. The upper layers of air are moving at higher speeds and will often scoop the top of the cloud layer into these wave-like rolling structures. During the coldest winters they can last well into the spring. One of the most convincing explanations relies on "negative buoyancy". Howard classified clouds in terms that remain familiar today: cumulus (heap), cirrus (curl), stratus (layer) and nimbus (rain). Rare Wave-Like Clouds Crest Over Pa. Turnpike November 26, 2019 at 1:22 pm Filed Under: Clouds , Local TV , Pennsylvania Turnpike , Philadelphia , Ray Petelin , turnpike KDKA viewer Ken Jones captured a photo of rare wave-shaped clouds that he saw over the Turnpike on the way to Philadelphia. During the coldest winters they can last well into the spring, trashing the ozone layer all the while. As a result, they are being analyzed to increase our understanding of how these upper-level ice clouds influence the Earth's radiation budget. They are most commonly spotted rolling across the North American plains, chasing convective thunderstorms. Lenticular clouds form when the airflow streaming over the mountain is both stable and humid. As a front draws nearer, sturdier clouds gather and the weather changes. It's the resistance of the cool air to this motion that causes the ripples. A wave cloud is a cloud form created by atmospheric internal waves. They are some of the highest and rarest clouds on Earth, but these iridescent specimens are both beauty and beast. As an air mass travels through the wave, it undergoes repeated uplift and descent. It was not until 1802 that Luke Howard started classifying clouds into groups. They occur when there is a strong vertical shear between two … Rare Wave-Like Clouds Over Virginia Mountain Look Like Van Gogh’s Famous ‘Starry Night’ The phenomenon’s known as Kelvin-Helmholtz waves, wherein specific atmospheric conditions create clouds that appear in wave-like patterns in the sky. WTHR Meteorologist Sean Ash says "Tsunami clouds" may be a nickname for the clouds but they are actually called the Kelvin-Helmholtz cloud and are pretty rare. A woman in Virginia snapped a picture of a rare cloud formation in the sky near Roanoke. Once these first tiny crystals are introduced, neighbouring droplets rush to join them, whereupon they quickly grow and start to fall. If there is enough moisture in the atmosphere, clouds will form at the cooled crests of these waves. 1. Kelvin-Helmholtz Wave Clouds This is a rare type of cloud that resembles ocean waves in the sky. The Kelvin-Helmholtz cloud is named after the scientist who studied them. (CNN) — A rare formation of clouds wowed onlookers at Virginia's Smith Mountain Lake on Tuesday. The ripples form when humid air at the far-flung edges of the storm system pushes past clear, cool air high in the sky. As a type of polar stratospheric cloud, they play a central role in the chemical destruction of the ozone layer. A rare wave cloud formation captured on the brink of sunset in the Bay of Plenty has been described as "magic". The resulting instability causes the breaking wave formation, both in the ocean and the air. Rare wave cloud spotted from Virgin Australia jet. A mountain range can form a series of long wave clouds, but if the speed bump is more isolated, like a single mountain, the result can be oval-shaped clouds that look like UFOs. They consist of dark, chaotic waves that seem to swirl and tumble haphazardly across the sky. Fallstreak holes occur in layers of cirrocumulus or altocumulus cloud, whose tiny droplets are much colder than the freezing point of water. It occurs almost everywhere in the world and at all levels of the atmosphere. Rare Wave-Like Clouds Over Virginia Mountain Look Like Van Gogh's Famous 'Starry Night' The phenomenon's known as Kelvin-Helmholtz waves, wherein specific atmospheric conditions create clouds that appear in wave-like patterns in the sky. The sky had an ocean wave look to it for a time yesterday. the water droplets are racing through the cloud, View image of A nacreous cloud at sunset (Credit: Pekka Parviainen/SPL), View image of Asperitas clouds (Credit: Laurent Laveder/SPL), View image of Kelvin-Helmholtz waves (Credit: Brad Lundgren), View image of A supercell thunderstorm over Nebraska (Credit: Roger Hill/SPL), View image of Cirrocumulus clouds forming a mackerel sky (Credit: Pekka Parviainen/SPL), View image of Mammatus clouds over Nebraska (Credit: Mike Hollingshead/SPL), View image of Clouds with virga, over the desert in Utah (Credit: Frank Zullo/SPL), associated with many different kinds of cloud, View image of A fallstreak hole over California (Credit: Kimberly Kradel/Alamy), surrounding droplets spontaneously freeze. Nacreous clouds accelerate the chemical reactions that convert benign chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) into ozone-destroying chlorine. 1 month ago. Virga – meaning literally "shaft" or "branch" – are associated with many different kinds of cloud. A rare wave cloud formation captured on the brink of sunset in the Bay of Plenty has been described as "magic". One of the rarest and most fleeting formations, this cartoon-like breaking wave is the Holy Grail for many cloud-spotters. These clouds look like ocean waves, and can be a sign of turbulence in the sky. Ice columns make up less than 1%,[4] and plates are virtually nonexistent. The main mechanism for ice formation is homogeneous nucleation. Image: Above: Flickr/jonnyr1. January 2008. Some, like lenticulars and wave clouds, tend to only be seen in the lee of mountain ranges. When an aeroplane passes through the cloud layer, the air that rushes around the wings or propeller tips expands and cools, making the surrounding droplets spontaneously freeze. Clouds resembling breaking ocean waves appeared in the skies above Breckenridge, Colorado, in the final week of October.. From the ethereal to the ominous, our planet's skies are teeming with strange clouds. Whether this happens depends on the saturation of the air. The waves in the cloud are also an indication of severe wind shear, according to the forecasters. A rare formation of clouds wowed onlookers at Virginia's Smith Mountain Lake on Tuesday.The photo shared on social media captured clouds that look like ocean waves in the sky. Rare disc-shaped clouds caught on camera by motorist Extraordinary lens shapes are exceptionally rare lenticular clouds and are also known as wave clouds They have iridescent colours but are higher and much rarer than ordinary iridescent clouds. Like giant breakers in the ocean surf, magnificent cloud waves in the sky crested and crashed above Virginia’s Smith Mountain Lake on Tuesday evening. No particular order in how ‘rare’ they are though. 63, No. A., Lawson, R. P. (2006) In Situ Observations of the Microphysical Properties of Wave, Cirrus, and Anvil Clouds. This occurs as the convection forces a wave or lenticular wave cloud into the more stable air above. The atmospheric internal waves that form wave clouds are created as stable air flows over a raised land feature such as a mountain range, and can form either directly above or in the lee of the feature. In 2008, Gavin Pretor-Pinney of the Cloud Appreciation Society proposed a new type of cloud. Despite their temperature, these supercooled droplets remain liquid due to a lack of "seed" particles for ice to grow on. Another rare glimpse of Kelvin-Helmholtz wave clouds over Fort Collins. In June 2015, the name – slightly modified to its noun form, asperitas – was officially accepted into the World Meteorological Organisation's International Cloud Atlas, the reference system used by meteorologists across the globe. It's a bit like a car's suspension bouncing after hitting a speed bump. They typically form when something forces a mass of air upward. In fact the water droplets are racing through the cloud, carried by the wind. When the cloud reaches the top of the troposphere – the bottom layer of Earth's atmosphere, which contains all the weather – a distinctive anvil-shaped thunderhead forms. It oscillates like this for a while, and on the upward part of the waves, clouds form as rising air cools. This is a list of what I believe to be the top 10 rarest cloud formations. Amy Hunter told AccuWeather that the stunning sight in the evening sky only lasted less than 60 seconds — but the unique phenomenon has since left a lasting impression on millions. Of the ice crystals can be a sign of turbulence in the.! `` Kelvin-Helmholtz waves develop due … Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds from a distant thunderstorm with strange clouds a woman spotted a formation!, a series of 5 unique images showing the formation of clouds wowed onlookers at Virginia 's Smith mountain on. 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