Corkscrew Clouds?

[wolftone]

I photographed this cloud from Madison recently. It looks like a corkscrew!

Do we have any atmospheric scientists around here who know how this sort of thing forms?

http://jtidwell.net/photos/northern-presis.php?photo=2005-07-11-413-corkscrew-cloud

[Photo hosted by my hike partner. Lots of other north presi traverse pictures in the same series.]

 

[David Metsky]

They look like wave patterns to me, not corkscrews. Here are some other photos of similar cloud patterns:

http://uap-www.nrl.navy.mil/dynamics/html/mwfmjanmayen.html
http://www.avoar.com/Documentos/AviationArticles/PDF/Lenticular.PDF#search='clouds%20wave%20patterns'

But that doesn't exactly show what is in the photo.

-dave-

 

[DougPaul]

Looks like wave clouds to me too.

Doug

 

[grouseking]

They look like a type of cirrus cloud formed by the high winds way up in the atmosphere. Here is a link for wave clouds from my old school...Lyndon STate College http://apollo.lsc.vsc.edu/classes/met130/notes/chapter7/lift_topo_wave.html

 

[patrickbrusil]

This site keeps amazing me at the knowledge of the entire community which frequents the forums.

 

[HikerBob]

And for further interesting stuff weather optics

Not sure how I came across this site, may have been posted here before

How about this monster? Does that look like a doouble helix swirl at the base to you, or is it just my eyes?

Bob

 

[grouseking]

Hikerbob wrote: "How about this monster? Does that look like a doouble helix swirl at the base to you, or is it just my eyes?"

That looks like a very leading edge of a squall line (probably the gust front) with the rain falling just behind it. I can imagine winds were at least 40-50+ in gusts. That looks like a nasty one, esp for us here in New England.

grouseking

 

[wolftone]

How about this monster? Does that look like a doouble helix swirl at the base to you, or is it just my eyes?

Bob

I'm not sure I see a corkscrew here, but I do have a feeling that if you see something like this you just might be screwed. Badly.

 

[HikerBob]

Here's a closer look at the base of the monster that preceeded the squall line.

Twist of cloud or imagination?

I wished I'd stopped a little earlier when I could have got a sequence of shots as it developed.

Bob