Fallstreak Hole Over Australia... and Beer

Fallstreak holes or as I've more commonly heard them referred to as, hole punch clouds, are a rare(ish) cloud formation that develops when the temperature of the water inside a cloud has dropped below freezing but ice crystals haven't yet formed because of a lack of particles to provide nucleation sites (supercooled water). Once ice crystals do begin to form, a chain reaction is touched off and through a process called the Wegener–Bergeron–Findeisen process, liquid water quickly evaporates and ice crystals grow through vapor deposition causing the formation of a hole in the cloud.

Most of the hole punch clouds I have seen have been in relation to some sort of UFO report, usually claimed to have been caused by a UFO's exit and are strikingly circular. The one that popped up in my feed this evening is massive and elliptical. It appeared about 1:00 PM this afternoon over Gippsland, an area in southern Australia east of Melbourne. All pictures from ABC source:

Early stages of development




Amazing! Now, you're probably wondering what any of this has to do with beer (aside from ... Australia). As I was reading about how these clouds form, I was instantly reminded of another instance of a supercooled liquid rapidly changing state upon the introduction of nucleating sites — in this case bubbles in supercooled beer. One of the many videos of "instantly freezing beer" that went viral a couple of years back:

beers good....

Practically happened right over my head. What an amazing event to witness and experience....

And I was stuck inside on the toilet and just see this now.

*goes outside in the slim hope to see anything of worth.

a reply to: theantediluvian

A couple more pictures of hole punch clouds. One from the Cloud Appreciation Society and an image from Nat Geo showing a cluster of three off the cost of South Carolina in 2011.

Breaking now on "Slightly Too Slow For Relevance News" (tm)

I went outside to see if anything was still happening out there (aside from the smell of snags sizzling from Melbourne Cup BBQ's, and I was able to capture these "On the scenes for ATS" worthy pictures.

This flat bank of cirro-stratus down towards the south, no signs of hole-punch clouds sadly, however....


To my north however there is a huge bank of cumulus (it's me!) and a strong breeze, I could be in for a nice storm shortly!? (This was the best of the pics, and doesn't show the obvious power and gravitas normally associated with "Slightly Too Slow For Relevance News" (tm).


And my helpful my somewhat embarrassing dog brings the light hearted humour normally associated with "Slightly Too Slow For Relevance News" (tm) to a close and took a whizz on a poop.

Thats beautiful! We had one I caught last August (2013) In Bris, but not nearly as pretty! It looked better in real life though.

a reply to: theantediluvian

cool pictures.....as far as the beer goes i am not so sure corona qualifies as a real beer

a reply to: Qumulys

I feel a little bad, I probably should have mentioned that today was actually yesterday (Monday) for you! (What's it like living in the future? )

On the other hand, it's 11 PM, cold and cloudy here so it's kinda nice to know there's somebody out there soaking in the sun under a vivid blue sky with puffy white clouds!

a reply to: bkaust

Nice! I've never seen one in person myself. I particularly like the rays of light coming down through it.

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
a reply to: theantediluvian

cool pictures.....as far as the beer goes i am not so sure corona qualifies as a real beer

Point taken!

a reply to: theantediluvian

Normally, yes you should feel bad! But luckily this was for a "Slightly Too Slow For Relevance News" (tm) report... I thought I was only 2 hours late to the scene (backyard)... At least now, as per my contract, that I'm 26 hours late I can send this in to the headquarters at "Something Important Happened Yesterday News" (tm). As a bonus, I claim double time as it's a public holiday here for Cup Day.

(really miffed actually! :p I had to drag out the camera, do photos, find the card reader, upload to pc, to photoshop to quickly balance colours, contrast, and censoring the dogs wee and poo... Oh well, at least I tried, and yes, it was pleasantly warm and sunny, the breeze is nice and I might go enjoy my cuppa out there while I quietly stew and plot my revenge )

a reply to: Qumulys

Thanks! TIL what Cup Day is:

Melbourne Cup Day is Australia’s best known horse racing event held on the first Tuesday of November every year. It is an annual public holiday in the state of Victoria. This event is popularly dubbed as “the race that stops the nation”.

So I guess we can dub it the Great Cup Day Fallstreak Hole of '14 (Fallstreak hole sounds a lot cooler than hole punch cloud).

These were seen over Minnesota & Wisconsin a few days ago, too. I saw the MODIS sat image, it gives a size perspective for just how enormous these formations really are:
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Apologies for the FB link. First thing I saw when I googled & am too lazy to look for others < slinks off >