Instantaneous Cloud Formation?

I witnessed something tonight unlike anything I've ever seen... I didn't have a camera at the read that would have been able to capture it so there will be no accompanying photos...

For whatever reason around 10pm last night I felt compelled to climb out onto my roof and meditate... this is something I have never done at any time ever and when I tried to push the thought out of my head and simply dismiss it I couldn't shake the feeling that this was something I "had to do"...

So I took out my window and climbed out onto my roof... I threw down a towel and sat "Indian style" on it and closed my eyes... I didn't really know exactly what it was I should do so I said several "Our Fathers" and then sat and looked at the sky for a bit...

It was extremely clear and to my left (the west) Venus and Jupiter were getting ready to set... I gazed at them for a bit and then climbed back inside and got ready to go to the gym which is about two miles away from my house...

When I left there still was nothing in the sky other than the stars... and I began driving to the gym... it's pretty much just a straight line and a left to get there and when I'd gone the mile and a half and turned left I looked to my left and was actually startled when I saw a huge white triangular cloud appear out of seemingly no where...

By the time I got to the parking lot and pulled into a space it was as though during the time I traveled the five blocks to get there the "triangle" was being stretched to the north with the "base" of the "triangle" remaining where it appeared to have been originally...

I also noticed an odd "star" that was 100% stationary to the southwest (NOT A PLANE OR HELICOPTER I KNOW THE DIFFERENCE) that seemed to be flickering into different colors from a bluish to a reddish to whitish/yellow and back and forth...

I have a "Star Walk" app on my iPhone and pulled it up to see if I could identify what it was... but when it loaded the app would never stay fixed at any one position... if I pointed it due west and lined up where the horizon should be on the phone it kept moving almost as a compass does when you hold a magnet up to it... so I never did pinpoint what or where exactly this "star" was...

I sat for a while looking at the "star" and looking at the "cloud" and neither seemed to change position whatsoever the entire time I was looking at both...

I figured I'd "wasted enough time" and got out to go into the gym when what appeared to be an extremely fast moving "shooting star" streaked across the sky from directly north to directly south to the west of the "cloud"...

I might as well also mention that there was nearly no surface wind whatsoever... I know that doesn't mean there was none higher in the atmosphere... but this "triangle" seemed to be stretching from south to north... and when I came back out to get some more water the clouds to the west appeared to be blowing south while the clouds to the east appeared to be blowing north...

Not that it really has anything to do with it I guess... but even though the temperature in the gym was supposedly the same as always everyone was remarking how "incredibly hot" it seemed tonight...

I'm not sure what sense to make out of any of it if there is any sense to be made... but figured I'd share since I've never started a thread on here and thought this nonsense would be worth making people say "huh"...

Always surprises me how no one ever has a camera...
You cant buy a mobile phone these days that doesn't have one.

Edit - you say you used starwalk app? wouldn't that imply you have a smart phone - meaning it would have a camera?

Originally posted by homeslice
Always surprises me how no one ever has a camera...
You cant buy a mobile phone these days that doesn't have one.

Edit - you say you used starwalk app? wouldn't that imply you have a smart phone - meaning it would have a camera?

edit on 21-3-2012 by homeslice because: (no reason given)

I have an iPhone and I had it on the roof with me and in the truck on the way to the gym... but taking pictures of the night sky with it is futile... to get the kind of low light exposure necessary you need to use a camera that you can mount to a tripod and keep the shutter open for a long enough duration to get the light you need for a good enough picture...

I tried taking pictures of the moon, Venus, and Jupiter a couple weeks ago using the "Pro HDR" app and they all looked like three squiggly lines...

Edit - That's why I prefaced the entire post with "I didn't have a camera at the read that would have been able to capture it so there will be no accompanying photos..."

reply to post by SwissMarked

Instantaneous Cloud Formation?

It sounds like you saw something like this that was filmed in 08 .

Or this from 1.35


My guess is the cloud formation was caused either by or as a combination of weather conditions or the topography of your local area .

reply to post by gortex


Both interesting videos... but the cloud didn't look like any of those... best way to describe it would be if you took one of those badges on the Star Trek shirts and made a huge cloud out of it that just showed up out of no where...

Whatever it was that flew north to south that seemed to be a "shooting star" was on of the "blink and you'll miss it" types... not the really cool slow burn leaving a huge trail kind... UFO... sure... I don't know what it was... so by definition that's what it was... but that doesn't by any means imply I think it was space aliens... would be cool if it was though... would kind of tick me off that they left me here though...

Clouds can form in a matter of minutes, from what looks like an empty sky. Great story though, the sky is like a show, that's FREE, and there's a lot to see if only folk would look up more often.

I know what you mean about not catching a photo. Some people expect a picture "or it didn't happen" but most cameras won't pick anything up in a night sky.

reply to post by wigit


The thing that struck me the most was the shape and size of it seemingly out of no where... it was like a perfectly formed elongated triangle... almost like if you took a "star destroyer" from Star Wars and stood it up on end pointing toward "outer space"...

I've never understood why more people don't look up at the sky... there's always something interesting going on even if it isn't "out of the ordinary"...

I guess people are too busy watching the "stars" on their idiot boxes to go outside and see some really cool crap going on...

I really just see a cloud forming, I live in Tornado alley, and man have I seen some very fast producing clouds, spinning, rolling, coming out of no where, sounds like bull, but its the truth. clouds can act weird, im not talking about tornados, Just some clouds, really cool to watch, some seem to go one way, and then you see these rogue clouds going really fast the other way, really cool stuff

reply to post by SwissMarked


Hi,
For what it's worth I experienced a similar thing, sort of.

I live in the UK and my rear garden faces south west and there is virtually no artificial lighting.
Tuesday evening about 8.30pm I went outside with the dog and noticed the stars in the clear sky.
Just like you SwissMarked I looked at Venus and Jupiter, ever so bright to the west, and admired Orion, my favourite constellation, and then checked out Mars to the east.
I check round occasionally for satellites and looking around I noticed a "star" due south west that seemed to be twinkling "funny", seemingly in different colours, as you describe SwissMarked with red, blue, white etc, the colours seemed to be flashing in sequence and each colour was eminating from its own "side" of the "star".
At first I thought it was the navigation lights of a stationary helicopter in the distance or a very high plane - but it was stationary for too long.
I wear glasses so I suspected that my glasses needed cleaning which I went inside to do, I also picked up my binoculars, when I looked again, the "star" was still there and still twinkling "funny".
Looking through my not too powerful binoculars help me see the multicolour effect a little clearer, and I knew it was not a usual optical effect.
I looked away from the "star" briefly to look at other stars to see if they were now twinkling in the same fashion, but none that I looked at were showing the same appearance.
When I looked back at the funny star, it had gone.
It had been obscured by a small cloud, but there were no other clouds in the sky.
I am aware that clouds can form for different reasons in just a few seconds, but it isn't the sudden appearance of the cloud that bemused me, it was the wierd multi-coloured twinkling of the "star".
Atmospheric anomalies, ice crystals and the like are usually blamed for strange events such as this, but I cannot understand why the anomaly was confined to just one "star".

even if it did form quickly, you said it stayed in that triangle shape. It seems like it stayed that way for awhile, and normally clouds will change shapes. was it windy that night out of curiousity?