Very unusal cloud - Galtee Mountains 290410

damoz

Was driving in this morning and noticed this on the Galtees - ive never seen a clould like this before - starting from the ground up. It looked cool, so i had to stop and take a pic on my phone - doesnt really do it justice, but its all i got.

If anyone can explain how its formed id appreciate it.

Takeshi_Kovacs

Looks pretty strange alright, is it rising up, or more or less spreading across towards you?

Su Campu

It looks to me to be an orographic cumulus, formed by the ascent of air over the hills. There is just enough conditional instability present for the cloud to grow vertically, and the slanted shape is due to progressively stronger wind the higher up you go, blowing upper parts of the cloud further downwind.

damoz

Takeshi_Kovacs wrote: »

Looks pretty strange alright, is it rising up, or more or less spreading across towards you?

It appeared to be rising up - off the mountain. There was some fog or low cloud patches around yesterday too. It s a pity i didnt have a proper camera, as it looked much more impressive than that photo.

Trogdor

Great shot! Never seen anything like that before really...

mike65

I have a bunch of shots taken in the same place, late one winter afternoon. They also have that same general look.

Here we are