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The Cloud Appreciation Society: Rare & Unusual Formations

BS3 said:
I have a feeling I might have seen this same noctilucent cloud event also. I was in London and it was really quite spectacular, there was a large area of bright clouds reaching up towards the zenith.

The below article suggests June 2006, slightly over 15 years.

https://www.brixtonbuzz.com/2021/06...-clouds-over-brixton-from-our-photo-archives/
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I've now found the original pictures I took and the date was 09 July 2009.

Your posting reminded me that I do remember also seeing Noctilucent clouds a few years before that when I lived in a tent on a campsite attached to a farm for a few years. I didn't have a camera then or a mobile phone that could take pictures. I can now remember pointing the clouds out to a young couple in the tent next to mine and them being very unimpressed. I'm sure I hadn't been homeless very long when I saw the clouds from the campsite and when I took the pictures form my flat I think I'd only been there a year so 2006 would fit in with the time scale.

And yes, I agree. To see Noctilucent clouds is a spectacular sight and very other worldly.
 
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Anti crepuscular rays taken from my days when I first moved into my flat (2009) and being so high up I took picture after picture of clouds. Sadly the novelty soon wore off. Maybe I'll dust off my camera and get picture taking again.

Anti crepuscular rays are seen when the sun is lower in the sky than the clouds and the atmosphere is slightly hazy. Usually late summer early autumn when the dew point is higher then the temperature. The dew point is the temperature at which water vapour condenses out onto a solid object, cars, grass, etc.

https://atoptics.co.uk/blog/anticrepuscular-rays/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dew_point

AC 1.JPG
 
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hunck said:
Yeah the reporting is none too clever - I wonder if it’s produced by speech to text..

The clouds are unusual though. Watching the short vid I found myself wondering if it was some sort of CGI, they look so weird.
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Appears as though something has plunged through them into the sea, leaving behind drawn together section of the cloud it passed through, and a centre column sucked downwards - so, yes, why not caused by ufo/s - or maybe something else from space, like space junk? Seems like a reasonable assumption, especially as this seems to be something seen which is quite unusual.
 
hunck said:
Yeah the reporting is none too clever - I wonder if it’s produced by speech to text..

The clouds are unusual though. Watching the short vid I found myself wondering if it was some sort of CGI, they look so weird.
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I looked up my Haynes Cloud Manual* and they are cavum in a sheet of altocumulous.
Sid said:
Appears as though something has plunged through them into the sea, leaving behind drawn together section of the cloud it passed through, and a centre column sucked downwards - so, yes, why not caused by ufo/s - or maybe something else from space, like space junk? Seems like a reasonable assumption, especially as this seems to be something seen which is quite unusual.
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Something has punched through them. They are also known as hole punch or fallstreak clouds. And, although as a good Fortean I can't rule out UFOs completely, I suspect that ordinary Earth aircraft are far more likely.

*Yes really.
 
Min Bannister said:
I looked up my Haynes Cloud Manual* and they are cavum in a sheet of altocumulous.

Something has punched through them. They are also known as hole punch or fallstreak clouds. And, although as a good Fortean I can't rule out UFOs completely, I suspect that ordinary Earth aircraft are far more likely.

*Yes really.
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And I thought they just did cars..

PastedGraphic-1.png
 
Min Bannister said:
I looked up my Haynes Cloud Manual* and they are cavum in a sheet of altocumulous.

Something has punched through them. They are also known as hole punch or fallstreak clouds. And, although as a good Fortean I can't rule out UFOs completely, I suspect that ordinary Earth aircraft are far more likely.

*Yes really.
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One or two would seem the norm - but I'm wondering why are there so many all in one area of cloud form?
 
Sid said:
One or two would seem the norm - but I'm wondering why are there so many all in one area of cloud form?
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It could also be parcels of air that are cooler than the surrounding air or even an area of atmospheric instability?
 
Sharon Hill said:
Several.
The Keys are a long chain of Islands and there are several small airports and a Naval Station.
These kinds of clouds are not that rare. But it seemed atmospheric conditions were just right.
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Florida Keys - there are numerous and loads of small air fields and more than quite a few Naval air stations.

I think you are right. Atmospheric conditions were perfect for altocumulus and then small aircraft landing creating the downdraft.
 
hunck said:
And I thought they just did cars..

View attachment 73572
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I can't imagine trying to repair that. It wouldn't fit in a garage. It wouldn't even fit in the town where I live. Or neighbouring towns. Imagine the 'I need a 12mm ring spanner' and the 'ok, I'll go and get it but the tool box is 25km away'.
 
Not a rare or unusual formation, but an aerial view of the Himalayas breaking through the clouds, taken by myself from a 737 on my way to Delhi from Kathmandu in 2012*

KTM F (227).JPG



*if you ever fly on this route, try and get a left-hand seat outwards, and right-hand returning for a great view :)
 
AnonyJ said:
Not a rare or unusual formation, but an aerial view of the Himalayas breaking through the clouds, taken by myself from a 737 on my way to Delhi from Kathmandu in 2012*

View attachment 74298


*if you ever fly on this route, try and get a left-hand seat outwards, and right-hand returning for a great view :)
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The Him-a-layers - I like the Marzipan pass.
1709119379306.png
 
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