#undulatus clouds

[mizelaneus]

A different astronomy and space science related image is featured each day, along with a brief explanation.

[blackswallowtailbutterfly]

Storm Clouds

When I say I miss home, this is what I mean. Thunderheads like cauliflower, roiling clouds so low you could touch them if you stood on top of an average building, ominous darkness, eerie glow, air that's alive with the low pressure. And all the other phenomena you get before and after: hanging mists, rainbows, mammatus and undulatus clouds, golden or pink skies, sunbursts, etc..

All photos mine. Some edited to bring out colour and contrast not captured in the original photos, others left as is.

Four of the photos in this post are from a storm last summer that ended up producing a tornado. Most of the others are from storms that were severe enough that watches were in place but no tornado. And the rest were just a standard thunderstorm or rainstorm. Can you guess which were which? :)

[keiteay]

Wintertime in Florida

[keiteay]

Land of make believe

[bythepalemoon]

[silkyclouds]

Undulatus Clouds 🌦️

“When the surface of a cloud layer, or the arrangement of its cloudlets, develops an undulating appearance that suggests waves, it's defined as the undulatus variety.

Waves and clouds have always had a close relationship.

The interaction of currents in the atmosphere, and the effects of the terrain on the passage of winds, can result in a whole range of undulating currents of air. Generally, these are invisible, unless the rising parts of the undulations cool the air enough to produce clouds of droplets or ice crystals, which are thinner or absent in the sinking parts of the undulations. In such circumstances, the waves show up on the surface of the cloud or as cloud billows with gaps in between.

Undulatus usually forms when the air above and below the cloud layer is moving at differing speeds and/or in different directions. It is the shearing effect of the two airstreams that gives rise to the cloud billows, which form perpendicular to the wind direction and can resemble ripples on a sandy beach caused by the movement of water.

Wave formations in clouds are so common that the undulatus variety is within six of the ten main cloud types.

Their presence is a reminder, to any who might forget, that the atmosphere around us is just as much of an ocean as the sea below.”

Cloud-a-Day

[silkyclouds]

CLOUDIES

[myemeraldream]

Do you think the earth can be high?