Ever since ancient times, people regarded heaven as something mysterious and mysterious, not giving in to a logical explanation. It was a 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 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 hugging a bright sky and admiring the passing clouds. Such happy moments tend to occur more often in childhood. The older the person, the more worries he has, and the less he pays attention to the beauty that surrounds him.
Time passes, the sky remains as endless, beautiful and unique as the clouds that rush with speed to an unknown distance. Or they slowly sail over our heads, taking on strange and bizarre forms. In this article we will consider the most unusual clouds that exist in nature.
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 nature.
Clouds are divided into various categories, have interesting names, features of their appearance. They are the subject of discussion and study by meteorologists from around 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 offer you to admire the heavenly creations, which just take your breath away. In science, they are usually called cloud formations. Nature has created a huge number of their species with different shapes, sizes and colors. In addition, there are some instances that are extremely rare, and may even be observed once in the entire history of the world.
Storm Collar
This is an incredibly beautiful weather phenomenon with the interesting name “thunder collar”. Long clouds of unusual shape, formed before the onset of cold fronts. They appear when the warm moist air cools down and, when condensed, creates a collar. Air currents can spin around its axis, but a tornado does not appear from it.
Lenticular
The most unusual clouds are uniquely 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 glued, no matter how strong the whirlwind. People talk about them as UFO plates hanging in the atmosphere. The appearance of lenticular clouds indicates a high moisture content in the air and the approach of the atmospheric front.
Silvery
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 opened in 1885. Their second name - “glowing clouds”, corresponds to their appearance.
During the day they are invisible, as they are very thin, but stars can shine through them. You can watch this beauty in the summer in the Northern Hemisphere, in winter - in the Southern.
Fallstreak effect
It is found in cirrocumulus clouds - a very rare phenomenon, manifested in an annular gap. These holes are created when the water temperature in them drops below zero, but it has not frozen yet. When a certain part of the water in the cloud freezes, it settles to the ground and thereby forms holes.
Figurative
Consist of unusual cellular forms. You can meet them extremely rarely and mainly in tropical latitudes, since they affect the formation of tropical cyclones. These clouds are gray-blue in color, like everyone else, however, when the rays of the sun fall on them, they can be gold 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 went rippling.
Protruding clouds
The unusual shape of such formations is very impressive. As a rule, they arise before a thunderstorm, although they can be precursors of cold air. They look a bit like thunder 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 powerful heating of air on the surface of the earth. This species occurs due to forest fires, volcanic eruptions, or an atomic explosion. In appearance they resemble clouds of dust after explosions.
Beam
They were opened in 1960. The name comes from the Greek "ray" and is associated with an effective structure. The size reaches 300 km in diameter, so you can contemplate them from a satellite. Today, scientists cannot give a definitive answer to how these clouds form.
Polar stratospheric clouds
The second name is “pearlescent”. Formed at an altitude of 15 to 25 km in the cold parts of the stratosphere (temperature, usually below -80 degrees). This species appears relatively rarely. For all the time such formations were noted only 100 times, not more. And the thing is that in the stratosphere the accumulation of water vapor is thousands of times smaller than in the troposphere.
Cloud hat
Very lively changes the configuration. In appearance, highly layered clouds are usually located above the cumulonimbus clouds. They can also be created from ash or a fiery cloud texture, during a volcanic eruption, for example.
Morning Gloria
Unusual clouds, long and horizontal. Something reminiscent of 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 cloud can be seen everywhere, but only in the springtime in the state of Queensland (in Australia) they are in a more or less stable position. Morning gloria is formed very often in connection with a sudden heavy wind.
