Halo Shaped Cloud Hovers Over Moscow
We were sent a photo of a luminous ring-shaped cloud hovering over the Kremlin in Moscow recently. A video of this cloud was posted on YouTube and it soon became a world news story, prompting many to claim that it was of a supernatural nature or a UFO or some sinister government-sponsored experiment.
The story appeared in newspapers around the world, all of which reported the exact same story (e.g. in the UK: The Sun, The Daily Mail, Metro; in the US: New York Daily News; in China: China Daily News). An unnamed Russian meteorologists was quoted, saying ‘This is a purely optical effect, although it does look impressive.’
We are stunned that no one knows that this is a straightforward and fairly common cloud formation, called a fallstreak hole. It is not an optical effect, nor is there anything paranormal about it. We wrote a Cloud of the Month about it a few years back. There are tonnes of photos of fallstreak holes on our photo gallery, sent in by members.
Have journalists stopped bothering to ask questions before printing a story? Can the so-called meteorologist really not know that fallstreak holes form quite regularly all around the world? Clearly, our mission to persuade the world to look up and notice the clouds is far from over.
More Cloud News
02/02/2010
Sundown Skies/Clouds
Patti Miller, member number 11465 wrote to us recently. In the 1960’s she was the Founder of her own cloud appreciation society. Membership consisted of herself and her sister, although she also claimed… more
12/22/2009
Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust acquires coastal strip
Cloud lovers in Lincolnshire will be pleased to know that The Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust has made a significant step in conserving the wild coast of Lincolnshire with the acquisition of land near Anderby Creek… more
12/04/2009
The Men Who Stare at Goats
Contributed by David Fiddimore: member 2126/ Edinburgh – 2nd December 2009
Film: general release November 2009
Cloud spotters may derive particular pleasure from the cloud busting scene in the 2009 film of Jon… more
12/03/2009
A Walk in the Clouds
Cloud Appreciation Society member, Deepak Chowdhury has recently published a Limited Edition Art Collection entitled “A Walk in the Clouds”
It consists of ninety plates of original photographs taken during his travels… more
12/02/2009
It didn’t come from outer space
Chris Jackson of Wellington drew our attention to this strange cloud formation that was seen over Island Bay.
Lenticular clouds or altocumulus standing lenticularis, like this one are stationary clouds that result… more
11/16/2009
Digital Clouds…?
Nicky Schroder, member 8032 has drawn our attention to this article in the BBC news.
This unconventional structure was originally envisaged as a centre piece of London’s Olympic village and has been… more
11/02/2009
Cirrus Chronicles – Landing in Ballynelligan
Corina Duyn, a member of the Cloud Appreciation Society has written to let us know that she has published a book entitled “Cirrus Chronicles – Landing in Ballynelligan”.
It is a story… more
10/27/2009
Halo Shaped Cloud Hovers Over Moscow
… more
10/06/2009
Scientists create noctilucent clouds
Noctilucent clouds float much higher than other clouds, allowing them to shine when the sun is below the horizon.
The New Scientist reports that an experiment aimed at creating an artificial noctilucent… more
09/15/2009
Ocean Youth Trust Ireland
The Ocean Youth Trust are a youth charity dedicated to getting young people out on the water sailing and have a 68 foot oyster ketch Lord Rank on which they do it.
They are… more
09/04/2009
LA Fire – Pyrocumulus Cloud
Russ Clark of Arizona, USA was sent this video by his daughter who lives in the LA Basin.
The footage was shot by Dan Black from his vantage point at Tarzana, California.
Gavin… more
09/04/2009
The Cloud Seeding Project
An art project exploring the process of ‘cloud seeding’. more
08/28/2009
Morning Glory Clouds
Australian Newspapers cover recent sightings of the Morning Glory Clouds. more
08/28/2009
The Language of Clouds
The technical names for cloud formations are conventionally Latin words chosen to match characteristic shapes but The Chambers Dictionary knows that there are other ways of talking about clouds.
In their latest blog they… more
08/28/2009
10 Things to do instead of shopping
Lifesquared have just made their new leaflet “10 Things to do instead of shopping” available as a free download for a limited period.
They have included a mention of Cloudspotting. The leaflet can… more
