Since ancient times, people have viewed the heavens as something mysterious and mysterious, beyond logical explanation. It was the place of the gods and an intermediate stage on the way to another world. Cloud phenomena are associated with astronomical, divine or celestial concepts. People can see in them the silhouettes of animals, people, symbolic signs of nature, deities and much more.
Probably, there is no person on earth who at least once in his life did not lie on the grass, mentally embracing the bright sky and admiring the passing clouds. Such happy moments tend to happen more often in childhood. The older a person is, the more worries he has, and the less he pays attention to the beauty that surrounds him.
Time passes, the sky remains as boundless, beautiful and unique as the clouds that rush at speed into the unknown distance. Or slowly float over our heads, acquiring strange and bizarre forms. In this article, we will look at the most unusual clouds that exist innature.
Amazing natural phenomenon
Cloud masses are never the same, they are invariably diverse and always worthy of human attention, because they are incredibly beautiful and amazing in their essence.
Clouds are divided into different categories, have interesting names, features of their appearance. They have been the subject of discussion and study of meteorologists from all over the world for many centuries. But we, ordinary people, as a rule, do not notice them at all behind a layer of problems in the life cycle. We invite you to admire the heavenly creations, which are simply breathtaking. In science, they are called cloud formations. Nature has created a huge number of their species with different shapes, sizes and colors. In addition, there are some specimens that are extremely rare, and may even be observed once in the entire history of the world.
Thunder Collar
This is an incredibly beautiful weather phenomenon with the interesting name "thunder collar". Long, unusually shaped clouds that form before the onset of cold fronts. They appear when warm, moist air cools and, condensing, creates a collar. Air currents can spin around its axis, but a tornado does not appear from it.
Lenticular
The most unusual clouds are definitely lenticular (lenticular). A very rare occurrence. They are created on the crests of air waves. The unimaginable feature of these clouds is that they do not move, but stand in the sky as if glued, no matter how strong they are.vortex. People talk about them as UFO saucers hovering in the atmosphere. The appearance of lenticular clouds indicates a high moisture content in the air and the approach of an atmospheric front.
Silver
The second name is luminous, very unusual clouds in the sky. These are one of the highest formations that are observed at an altitude of 80-95 kilometers. The view was discovered in 1885. Their second name is "luminous clouds", corresponds to their appearance.
During the day they are invisible, as they are very thin, but stars can be seen through them. You can watch this beauty in the summer in the Northern Hemisphere, in the winter - in the Southern.
Fallstreak effect
Occurs in cirrocumulus clouds - a very rare occurrence, manifested in an annular gap. These holes are created when the temperature of the water in them drops below zero, but it has not yet frozen. When a certain part of the water in the cloud freezes, it settles to the ground and thus forms holes.
Magic
Consist of unusual cellular shapes. You can meet them extremely rarely and mainly in tropical latitudes, since they influence the formation of tropical cyclones. These clouds are a blue-gray color like everyone else, however, when the sun's rays hit them, they can be golden or red.
Wavy clouds
Looking at the photos of unusual clouds, you can immediately understand why they are called wavy. Something like the water in the ocean, which began to ripple.
Protruding clouds
The unusual shape of such formations is very impressive. As a rule, they occur before a thunderstorm, although they can be precursors of cold air. They look a little like storm collars, but their difference is that the protruding clouds are connected by a huge cloud mass that is hidden from above.
Fiery unusual clouds
The second name is "pyrocumulus". They are created during the powerful heating of air on the surface of the earth. This species occurs as a result of forest fires, volcanic eruptions or an atomic explosion. In appearance, they resemble clouds of dust after explosions.
Beams
Were opened in 1960. The name comes from the Greek "beam" and is associated with an effective structure. The size reaches 300 km in diameter, so you can contemplate them from a satellite. To date, scientists cannot give a definitive answer on how these clouds form.
Polar stratospheric clouds
The second name is "mother-of-pearl". They form at an altitude of 15 to 25 km in the cold parts of the stratosphere (temperatures are usually below -80 degrees). This species occurs relatively rarely. For all the time, such formations were noted only 100 times, no more. And the thing is that in the stratosphere the accumulation of water vapor is thousands of times less than in the troposphere.
Cloud hat
Changes the configuration very quickly. In appearance, altostratus clouds are usually located above the cumulonimbus clouds. They can also be created from ash or a fiery cloud texture during an eruption.volcano e.g.
Morning glory
Unusual clouds, long and horizontal. Something like rotating pipes. They can reach up to 1000 km in length, from 1 to 2 km in height. They are located only 150-200 meters above the ground and move at speeds up to 60 km/h.
This type of clouds can be seen everywhere, but only in the springtime in Queensland (Australia) are they in a more or less stable position. Morning glory is formed very often due to sudden heavy winds.
Rough waves
In 2009, they were identified as a special kind of clouds called Undulatus asperatus. The last time significant cloud phenomena were included in the International Atlas was in 1951. They resemble ominous and demonic clouds, similar to the seething waters of the sea with a dark rumpled surface. Many at one time associated these clouds with allegedly approaching apocalyptic events in 2012.
