Striped clouds

Striped clouds

Forums Cloud Identification Help Striped clouds

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    • #443178
      Ari Rosti avatarAri Rosti
      Participant

      This morning, I spotted a cloud formation where part of the cloud is striped. What might be the reason for this? Second image is cropped showing the stripes more clearly.

      DSC_1714_resize

      DSC_1714_crop2

    • #443440
      Hans Stocker avatarHans Stocker
      Participant

      Great spotting Ari. The cropped picture shows indeed the stripes very well. Nothing is what it seems in my opinion. I think you spotted altocumulus and the stripes you see are undulatus. In fact the stripes betray the fact that we see here altocumulus  at two different levels, so in the variety duplicatus. The stripes themselves are caused by shearing winds at that specific level. The winds cause the pattern of undulatus, just in the same way the wind does with the water: always with the pattern perpendicular to the wind. The undulatus seems to me at a lower level than the larger altocumulus clouds.

      I hope this helps. Please react when there are other opinions.

    • #454542
      Gregory Venarsky avatarGregory Venarsky
      Participant

      Great explanation Hans!

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