Rarely Seen Cloud Formations

There seems to be no end to strange cloud formations! From Punch hole clouds
to cloud vortices, enjoy these rarely seen cloud formations!
























Punch Hole Clouds may appears a circular or oval holes in a layer of supercooled clouds;
sometimes they assume a form of a perfect circle and persist for quite a long time,
drifting together with the cloud layer. One explanation seems to blame the air traffic
(the jet contrail intersections) combined with a thermal inversion (a circular motion
of a rising warm air). Here is one observed over the Gunnison Valley in Colorado.















Another strange hole in the cloud, reported from Mobile, Alabama, USA. Dec, 2003
(and covered by BBC news)












Photo taken in Melbourne, Australia in 2003.








It seems both rising and sinking air currents can create the same effect. Sometimes
a very stable, uniform layer of high-altitude clouds can get "punched through" by
a pocket of cold air, which sinks toward the ground - creating the circular hole formation.













These "cloud holes" can look like the footprints of some celestial being
or can be amazingly round, like this pair observed in Gallatin, Tennessee
by Wayne Carter.










NASA Terra Satellite equipped with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
(MODIS) has captured these images over Acadiana area in southern Louisiana - a splattering
of round holes actually stretched over several states: Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and
Texas. Some were elongated, some appeared to have smaller clouds inside them.









Cloud Vortices: another "holey" sky phenomena..
Theodore von Karman's "Cloud Vortices" are something else, again : they form
when the wind encounters a barrier - such as the Aleutian islands , in this case -
and the flowing eddies of cloud create a weird pattern. The image you see below
was photographed from the International Space Station, and the animation shows
the double row of vortices, which rotate opposite from each other.
















Extremely strong thunderstorm cloud brewing over northwest Calgary


























Another supercell cloud in Alberta skies, this time over Edmonton.
















"Mushroom"?
















Another cloud "wave".....
















Roll Clouds....get into a small plane and start surfing them....
































A Cloud Angel


















2 light-sabers get crossed in the sky






















A fire breathing "rabbit-dragon" ...and a fantastic cloud edge..









A "Genie", coming out of a bottle...

















Spectacular Lenticulars in the morning light.....

















....and a whole "pancake" stack of them, over at mount Rainier in Washington

















Stormy


















An interesting Rainbow effect


















Nacreous Clouds





















Prepare to get squashed, Earthlings!