[Bazmundo]

Stratocumulus Standing Lenticular? At least that's a best guess, as they didn't move apart from a little morphing and formed a thick sheet of Sc downwind to the east. Early hints in broken strat around 2pm and through the afternoon before I managed to catch a good view of this at about 5pm on the way to work. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get out of the office later, and had to watch them go shades of hot pink and dirty orange through the windows before dark.

Attached thumbnail(s)

• 
• 

[rosskesava]

Those are quite amazing.

Forgive my ignorance. I thought lenticular clouds were all the same, sort of flying saucer shaped. I didn't know they could come from different types of cloud,

[JohnG]

Nice pictures Glyn.

They do look lenticular in nature and the line of stratus below the strato/altostratus looks like it might be a roll cloud? Certainly if you look at the IR satelite imagary you can see a standing area of cloud that ties in nicely with your location.

rosskesava, on 24 February 2012 - 00:34, said:

Those are quite amazing.

Forgive my ignorance. I thought lenticular clouds were all the same, sort of flying saucer shaped. I didn't know they could come from different types of cloud,

Lenticular just refers to layered cloud that develops a lens like shape. The classic type that everyone tends to think of is the "stack of plates or flying saucer" shape because it is the most distinctive and easily recognizable formation but lensing of layered cloud can form in many kinds of situations where there is a laminar flow(non turbulant).

[JOKE_SNOW]

I can vouch for these, saw many 'lenticulars' today, including one stubborn bank which persisted into the early evening. Oddly however there was something of a trough-feature running under the lenticulars that cut off surface temps significantly for a couple of hours.
What *should* have been a day of 16'c heights ended up clouded-out thanks to the undercutting trough feature.

[Nigel Bolton]

Interestingly, the clouds that have been photographed are not Sc, because the cloud base is too high!!!



The cloud photographed has been induced by a standing wave, set up as stable air is forced to rise en-masse over the Pennines. If one looks at a satpic on the afternoon of this day, one would have seen a huge bank of white cloud forming just to the east of the Pennines and streaming downwind across the North Sea. What is being captured here is the western edge of the cloud sheet where the air is rising, and various layers of moisture are condensing out as a result, giving initially several layers of cloud, these then merging into a more amorphous layer as they stream downwind.



Investigation by tephigram would give this cloud sheet a base of between 20,000 and 24, 000 feet and a cloud top of between 35,000 and 40,000 feet!!! The air below this height is too dry for cloud to form, except from some weak CuSc in the bottom 3,000 feet of atmosphere. Therefore, it is a thick layer of AcAs.



The other thing of note, is the western edge of this cloud would have appeared as stationary. However, wind was blowing through this cloud layer at speeds of between 60 and 75 knots, the force of a Cat 1 hurricane.

N.

[JohnG]

Nigel Bolton, on 24 February 2012 - 02:23, said:

Interestingly, the clouds that have been photographed are not Sc, because the cloud base is too high!!!

Investigation by tephigram would give this cloud sheet a base of between 20,000 and 24, 000 feet and a cloud top of between 35,000 and 40,000 feet!!! The air below this height is too dry for cloud to form, except from some weak CuSc in the bottom 3,000 feet of atmosphere. Therefore, it is a thick layer of AcAs.

N.[/size][/font]

Yes I had feeling it was more altostratus. Don't know where I was going with "strato/altostratus" though - there is no such thing as stratostratus DOH! Thanks for the analysis.

This post has been edited by JohnG: 24 February 2012 - 02:31

[JOKE_SNOW]

Looking at the same clouds from almost beneath them with many showing signs of layering as the sun began to set, briefly showing the structure in it's entirety. I also have to say how gusty and cold it was on the tops yesterday..far from the 14-16'c in the sheltered spots of the Pennines.

This was taken about 10 minutes before sunset, looking NorthEast from Buxworth Basin.

This post has been edited by JOKE_SNOW: 24 February 2012 - 13:21

[John Mason]

Great shots both - would go along with Nigel's explanation. Satellite imagery appeared to show abundant waveforms at cloudtop-level yesterday and you guys were able to see it (I was stuck under it)...

Cheers - John

[Tony Sales]

Nice shots, saw some of these this afternoon

[Ed.]

Like those mate, funny how some clouds which are hardly known to produce 'the' goods can still look so dramatic! cheers for sharing.

[rosskesava]

How interesting.

I've spent a few hours reading up on the net about what Nigel posted above along with the other postings. I'm not sure I get it but somewhere in all that I've read, something sort of makes a bit more sense. I just wish I had the type of brain that could retain it all.

Still, amazing pictures though.

This post has been edited by rosskesava: 24 February 2012 - 23:37