Thursday, October 29, 2009

Lenticular clouds and Mt. Rainier

Pam's note: the Pacific NW is one of the neatest places on the planet. The following pictures and text were in an email that I received (via many many forwards.)


Enjoy!













This is the coolest, most bizarre weather phenomenon I've ever seen.

For those who don't live in the Seattle, Washington area, Vashon is one of the islands in the puget sound. A couple people saw this - it was so amazing, people were pulling over on the freeway to take pictures.

A lot of these are taken from Vashon but there was the most amazing view from the top of the 15th Street hill. CRAZY!

Mt. Rainier puts on a show!

By Scott Sistek
Our little dry streak is about to come to an end. But if you looked at Mt. Rainier today, you would have known that already.

Take a look at some of these incredible clouds captured over Mt. Rainier today.

(Photos by Tim Thompson and David Embrey.)

Those are called "lenticular clouds" They're caused when the air flow is just right so when it flows over Mt. Rainier, the air gets pushed upward where it cools and condenses into clouds. Depending on how smooth the flow is, you can get some amazing clouds formations.
Here is more information on what causes them.

It's usually a sign of rain within 24 hours because typically the moist flow that precedes a storm around here is the perfect set up for these clouds.

Pretty amazing huh!!










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