Hole Punch Clouds
In October of 2009, I posted about the strange cloud formation seen over Moscow, Russia. Now we have a similar formation spotted near to home, Wenatchee, Washington.
The Wenatchee World reports that Howard Lowell snapped some pictures of “hole punch clouds.” There’s even an explanation of the phenomenon:
…the theory is that descending air or airplanes traveling through the clouds disrupt the cloud cover. They occur in clouds that are composed of both ice crystals and super-cooled water droplets — water that is below freezing temperature but still in liquid form. Only slight disruptions in the clouds can create a void that gives the striking appearance of a hole in the clouds.
Remember that movie about the coming of the ice age in New York City, “The Day After Tomorrow?” There was something similar going on in that movie: down-bursts of super cold air. Are we closer to that happening than we think?
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