Strange cloud formation.

Hi folks.

I was driving home this afternoon when a really strange cloud formation caught my eye. So much so that I actually pulled into a restaurant car park and snapped a few pics of it on my phone.

The weather here - Liverpool, UK - had been really strange recently and I have never seen clouds like this before.

It looked like it was forming into a downwards pointing cone over the river. I actually thought that it might be a tornado forming - even though I've never seen one. Can anyone explain to me just what the hell would cause an isolated patch of could to form like this because it really freaked me out.

Is it all do with the changing climate?




Thanks

MGGG

I think what you have there is natural. There is a name for these type of clouds and for the life of me i cannot remember. Flying light aircraft i take an interst in clouds and odd formations. I think you will find this picture to be similar to your formation but to the extreme.



Also i am at the moment trying to locate a picture i took myself approx 2 month ago which i will post shortly. Its quite amazing.

I just noticed you mentioned you are from Liverpool like me. Is this picture taken from the dock road up near the old garden festival site near otterspool prom

[edit on 9-11-2008 by thesaint]

reply to post by machinegun_go_go


Hi there Machinegun_go_go (cool name by the way )

Maybe it has something to do with what i have been talkin about for about a week now on ATS...

www.express.co.uk...

www.weatheraction.com...

Better get ready.....

[edit on 9/11/2008 by operation mindcrime]

thesaint,

Spot on in terms of location of the photo. I took it from the car park of the Chung Ku, just behind the Jag dealer.

I think I do see a similarity between your extreme example and what I saw.

I have no doubts that it is natural, i'm just baffled that I've never seen anything like it before and so isolated - it was normal cloud everywhere else.

Good to see there are other scousers here btw. :-)

Mindcrime...I'll check out your thread.

Cheers,

Peace,

MGGG

I thought so. This is directly under my flight path when taking off from Liverpool John Lennon. Not that i recognised it from that. It was purely because i have had many a nice chinese meal at that place

Whats odd is that this picture i am posting now was taking by myself approx mid September and also a few mile south of your location also over the Mersey

Now that is strange. Another circular type cloud over the Mersey.

I've never seen one like that either. It looks a little like a plane has been flying round in circles.

I wonder if anyone else has noticed strange cloud formations in the area. I live right by where the pic was taken so think I'll be keeping an eye out from now one.

Cheers for sharing that pic. Did you come to a conclusion as to what caused it?

Peace,

MGGG

I didnt. I was an explosives demolitions expert in the Military and therefore at first assumed that it was a smoke ring from some type of explosion. They look very similar to this but this was directly over the Mersey. I had been in that spot for the last hour and heard no explosion and on investigating further found there was no explosion within the area that day.

Thats what the logical me was saying but i think there could be more to this as this is just such an odd cloud

[edit on 9-11-2008 by thesaint]

I see what you mean about it looking like a smoke ring from an explosion.

Hopefully someone will drop in and explain to us just why we're seeing strange clouds in this area...

Bit of a coincidence don't you think?

Those are mammatus clouds. You can see more at this site and some other interesting clouds. www.collthings.co.uk...

Yes because this was only at a height of approx 1000 - 1500 feet so for the ring to be that large it must have been one hell of an explosion. Smoke rings get bigger and more faint as they raise so for this to be this size and noticable at this altitude i would assume there was a bloody great bang nearby but NO

I couldn't venture a guess as to the cloud that looks like a smoke ring, but the first one, the original post is a fairly common occurence here in my neck of the woods. I can't remember the name of it either, but you see this when there is very unstable air above you.

I remember exactly where I was the first time I saw it and since then I have seen it many times. I guess I had just never noticed it before.

The OP is correct in associating that with tornadic activity. It is common during extremely volatile upper and lower level air masses colliding. It looks like the plasma scenes in Ghostbusters. Very cool to look at. I have some pics of it around here also (probably can't find them though, as I have thousands)

Edit - I just read the above poster's link on mammatus clouds and I wanted to clarify that I didn't mean that if you see them, there is about to be a tornado, just that you are looking at a volatile system.

[edit on 9-11-2008 by Jay-in-AR]

Thanks for the responses on this...much appreciated - so, Jay, are you in agreement with ahimsa that it is a mammatus cloud?

It has been a very volatile day indeed - weatherwise. I was at the rememberance service at St George's Hall this morning and it went really cold and then started raining and all strange things in a short space of time.

Even if it doesn't mean that there was going to be a tornado I was convinced there was at the time. LOL

thesaint's image is intriguing me now. A silent explosion on a river where the North's Naval HQ is? Impossible - surely...

Peace,

MGGG

Yes, that is the name of the formation.

When I first saw it I had looked it up because I thought it was trippy. I thought I was witnessing the ectoplasma from Ghostbusters overtaking my city.

Just like the link stated, it happens when the clouds in a cold air mass sink after being hit by a warmer air mass. Storms can easily occur in those situations.
I live in what is considered a part of "tornado alley" and we see these sorts of formations often.