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Tornado's green color sky/clouds?

Tornado's green color sky/clouds?

Forums › The Cloud Forum › Tornado's green color sky/clouds?

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    • November 27, 2015 at 2:03 pm #85062
      Michael Robie avatarMichael Robie
      Participant

      I have personally witnessed the color of the sky or clouds in the sky to become ominously green when observing the sky prior to tornado weather. It seems that you need to be relatively close to a storm predicted to produce tornados. i.e. A Tornado Warning. Other reliable individuals have observed this same phenomenon. I have not seen these green skys/clouds under any other weather circumstances. I have not been able to find any reference to green sky/clouds under any circumstances. Minneart does not mention this phenomenon. None of my usual Astro Optics sites mentions this phenomenon. Does anybody have a detailed optical explanation for this phenomenon or at least a viable theory.
      Thanks
      Mike Robie

    • November 27, 2015 at 2:48 pm #85065
      Michael Lerch avatarMichael Lerch
      Participant

      Mike..I recall that the green has to do with charged electrons,,something about ” fluoresce” . I ve seen ” green” in clouds numerous times and thankfully none got as dramatic as a tornado, but the skies involved were at least turbulent. I recall being told when I was a youngster,”green sky seek shelter.” Below is a shot of a wave cloud created by a collapsing nimbus tower. The rolling cloud came back into the Valley with high speed and if you look carefully,,a green tintgreen

    • November 28, 2015 at 11:11 pm #85138
      Howard Brown avatarHoward Brown
      Participant

      Michael, it is a question that has intrigued me, probably due to the Green Flash in the atoptics index. If you go to the CAS Old Forum and search ‘green’ there are several posts though I don’t recall one that would answer your question:

      CAS Old Forum link


      A lady in Queensland talks of green clouds – see also the next link.

      This link offers several answers, but does not mention MikeL’s charged electrons as above (spot-on picture, MikeL):
      http://optics.kulgun.net/GreenClouds/green_clouds.shtml

      Eric M. Wilcox, Clouds, 2008 (with a Foreword by Gavin Pretor-Pinney) shows this Eddie Soloway picture on pp40-41 (you can enlarge it with repeated ‘Ctl+’):
      https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/89/91/3d/89913de21a3a7af20b6dba4cdc391586.jpg
      The caption says ‘Of all the signs of threatening weather offered to us by clouds, perhaps none is as ominous as the thunderstorm with a green hue. Anecdotally, such a scene is thought to be advance warning of a tornado; although this is not always the case, the filtering of sunlight that creates this optical effect can be an indication that heavy rain, high winds and lightning are not far off’.

      Lastly google ‘green clouds’ for a selection of comments.

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