Is this some strange luminescent green form of cloud? Well, yes and no…
Category: Cloud of the Month
Every month, we choose one of our favourite photographs from the Cloud Gallery to become our Cloud of the Month.
The cloud of the month for December is the Altocumulus asperatus undulatus. It is the cloud that aspires to be recognised…
November’s Cloud of the Month features the cloud feature known as a tuba. This finger of cloud forms within the rotating air below a Cumulonimbus storm cloud…
Clouds come in all shapes and sizes, but Cloud of the Month for October exhibits gigantic proportions…
Cloud of the Month for September is Craig Cooper’s rainbow over Stanton Lacy, Shropshire, UK…
Cloud of the Month for August is the elusive night-shining, Noctilucent cloud…
This month’s image, by Doug Short, shows a mix of cloud types over Anchorage, Alaska…
This month’s choice is taken from one of our favourite parts of the Cloud Appreciation Society photography gallery…
This dramatic lenticularis cloud formation at sunset over Grangemouth, Scotland, looks like a Sci-Fi poster…
The Cloud of the Month for April was photographed over Brazil by Pilot Ron Engels from the flight deck…
This month’s cloud, spotted by Marc Puigdomenech over Tortosa, Catalonia, Spain, is a huge Altocumulus cloud of the species known as ‘lenticularis’…
The Cloud of the Month for February is Basil Stathoulis’s photograph of dramatic thunderstorms lined up across the vast expanse of Botswana’s Okavango Delta…
Very rare arcs and halos appeared at the end of October 2012 as the sunlight shone through the ice crystals of Cirrostratus clouds…
When Cirrus clouds are arranged like the backbone of a fish, they are given the name ‘vertebratus’…
Lenticularis clouds dominate the cloudscape over the Torres del Paine mountains, Chile…
Lightning can take many different paths as the enormous electrical charges that build up with in Cumulonimbus storm clouds suddenly redistribute themselves…
The cloud of the month for September was spotted by Sebastian Luciano Ferla over Monte Cofano in Sicily, Italy…
The Cloud of the Month for August is a display of mamma clouds photographed by Kamila Mazurkiewicz over Puławy, Poland…
A Picture Postcard from The Netherlands
Clouds appearing simultaneously at several different levels of our atmosphere is a common sight, one that is sometimes described as a ‘mixed sky’. The tranquil concoction of clouds chosen as July’s Cloud of the Month was spotted over the hamlet of Huls in the south of The Netherlands.
© Photograph Math Gossens.
The Northern Lights
This month’s image is the notoriously elusive Aurora Borealis, also described as The Northern Lights. Photographer, Norman Shulman, was very fortunate in spotting this enchanting display over Myvatn, in N.E. Iceland. The natural light show in the sky occurs at its most spectacular over Arctic and Antarctic regions and is caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the earth’s high altitude atmosphere. The particles originate from solar storms are carried on solar winds before being lured to our atmosphere by the Earth’s magnetic field. And in the foreground? None other than our beloved Altocumulus lenticularis clouds, of course.
© Photograph Norman Shulman.
The Sun Sets Over Bali
This month’s image is from the island of Bali in Indonesia. Unwind beneath the golden Altocumulus clouds. Bathe in the warmth of the sunset colours. On the horizon, the towering Cumulus are darkening in the shadow of the Earth, as the waves lap at your feet on the rippled sand of the water’s edge.
© Photograph Willem Tesselaar.
Iridescence over Independence
This month’s cloud formation is a display of cloud iridescence. This colourful optical effect is caused by sunlight being diffracted as it passes around the cloud particles, and is seen mostly often when a cloud is forming or dissipating, which means its water droplets are all of a similar size. The beautiful and eery example shown here is in an Altocumulus cloud spotted by Andrew Kirk over Independence, California, US.
© Photograph Andrew Kirk.
Florida Fog
This month’s dramatic image of stratus cloud pouring over condominiums, was observed initially by helicopter pilot Mike Schaeffer. He was completing a sightseeing tour when he spotted this strange weather phenomenon along Panama City Beach, Florida. On landing, he told the helicopter company owner, J.R. Hott, about the cloud formation and they both went up for a better view. They moved quickly, knowing that this beautiful effect could only occur in very specific weather conditions.
The fog formation has since been described in the media as a “cloud tsunami” but J.R. disagrees with this name. “The term tsunami implies a natural disaster,” he explained, “but this cloud effect, though it can form quickly, moves in a gradual manner. It only occurs in the presence of a gentle breeze.”
Photograph © JR Hott.
Upside Down Lightning Over Penang, Malaysia.
This month’s image shows a dramatically different perspective on lightning, which here appears to be travelling upwards within the Cumulonimbus storm cloud. This type of lightning is sometimes described as spider or anvil crawler lightning, and was spotted over Penang, Malaysia, by Mike Sharp. He describes the area as “most exciting weatherwise”. How could we disagree?
Photograph © Mike Sharp.
Iridescent Lenticular clouds over Mount Rainier
This month’s image shows the beautiful effect that can result from the sunlight shining through thin parts of a cloud where the tiny droplets or ice crystals all have similar sizes. The sunlight can be ‘diffracted’ as it passes around the miniscule particles. The result is that it is split into different wavelengths, which appear as the colours of the rainbow. This optical effect is called iridescence or irisation and tends to appear at the fringes of clouds. This fantastic example, captured by Ryan Verwest, shows iridescence in lenticular clouds, and was spotted over Mount Rainier, Washington, US.
Photograph © Ryan Verwest.
Noctilucents over Edmonton
This month’s fantastic display of noctilucent clouds was spotted over Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Photograph © Hayley Dunning.
Racing The Roll Cloud
This fantastic example of a roll cloud was spotted between Sydney and Marimbula during the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race 2010/2011.
Photograph © Carlo Borlenghi/Rolex.
Storm Front Surprise
This month’s cloud is known as an arcus, or shelf cloud, which sometimes prodrudes from the front base of a Cumulonimbus storm cloud. It was spotted by Eunice Clarke over Turnberry, Ayrshire in Scotland. “It was amazing standing there,” Eunice told us, “I was taking landscape pics on a nice sunny evening, when this strong gusting wind came from nowhere. When I looked behind me, this is what I saw coming towards me.”
© Photograph Eunice Clarke.