Tag Archives: mammatus cloud

Behold: Mammatus clouds – the most stacked of all suspended aerosols. To wit:

Normally, cloud bottoms are flat. This is because moist warm air that rises and cools will condense into water droplets at a specific temperature, which usually corresponds to a very specific height. As water droplets grow, an opaque cloud forms. Under some conditions, however, cloud pockets can develop that contain large droplets of water or ice that fall into clear air as they evaporate. Such pockets may occur in turbulent air near a thunderstorm. Resulting mammatus clouds can appear especially dramatic if sunlit from the side. The mammatus clouds pictured here, lasting only a few minutes, were photographed over Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, just after a storm in 2012.

(Image: Michael F Johnston)

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There’ve been a few (but none quite like the outgoing one).

Behold: a spectacular display of mammatus (breast-like) clouds over Mount Rushmore last September. To wit:

Unlike normal flat-bottomed clouds which form when moist and calm air plateaus rise and cool, bumpy mammatus clouds form as icy and turbulent air pockets sink and heat up. Such turbulent air is frequently accompanied by a thunderstorm. Each mammatus lobe spans about one kilometre. The greater mountain is known to native Lakota Sioux as Six Grandfathers, deities responsible for the directions north, south, east, west, up, and down.

(Image: Laure Mattuzzi)

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Pendulous mammatus clouds over Hastings, Nebraska in June 2004. To fwoaarr wit:

Normally, cloud bottoms are flat. This is because moist warm air that rises and cools will condense into water droplets at a specific temperature, which usually corresponds to a very specific height. As water droplets grow, an opaque cloud forms. Under some conditions, however, cloud pockets can develop that contain large droplets of water or ice that fall into clear air as they evaporate. Such pockets may occur in turbulent air near a thunderstorm. Resulting mammatus clouds can appear especially dramatic if sunlit from the side.

Side mammatus.

Oh grow up.

RELATED: Boob Clouds Over Michigan.

(Image: Jorn Olsen Photography)

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