Jane Friedmann (Member 65,471) spotted this ‘mishmash of clouds’ over Shoreview, Minnesota, US. The one that towers in the middle, which Jane described as ‘that central show-off’, is a Cirrus spissatus cumulonimbogenitus. Spissatus is the Latin for ‘condensed’, and we use this classification for Cirrus clouds that look thicker and denser than their usual wispy, streaked appearance. The term cumulonimbogenitus indicates that the formation started life as a Cumulonimbus storm cloud (like the one darkening the sky, off on the horizon). The ice crystals at the storm’s top remained – effectively, just a thick plume of Cirrus – after the Cumulonimbus ran out of energy and dissipated from the bottom up. That can happen to the best of us.