Mamatus clouds

[clawz]

I came across this website a while ago, i forget where from but just have a quick veiw of it:
http://www.hprcc.unl.edu/nebraska/june2004hastings-mammatus.html
Now when i saw them i thought how weird.... what was your reaction? photoshoped? drawing?.... NOPE.....

I never thought in my life time that i'd see these cloud formations but here you are, ok not as good as the website pici's but at least i now belive!

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b376/clawz001/Uderstorm.jpg

And it was taken on the new camera! ;)

[Hoodi]

Aye, I've seen these before - but only to a similar degree of what you're showing here. They seem to be quite rare!
I wonder what conditions cause them?

[Marianne]

well I never....aren't they wierd?

can see why they're called 'mamatus' though :naughty:

[Marcel]

ooer missus :D

Seen these once before in real life, and only on photos before that so WD on capturing them clawz :thumbs:.

Fantastic cloud formations, and when coupled with a red or orange (or even pink....as I saw), they can be quite a scary sight, yet always impressive and awe inspiring.

[clawz]

Aye, I've seen these before - but only to a similar degree of what you're showing here. They seem to be quite rare!
I wonder what conditions cause them?

Quotes from a meteorological photography site:
Mammatus occurs whenever there is a conditionally unstable cloud layer above clear air: when an air parcel from this cloud layer descends into the clear air below, the cloud particles such as snow crystals and water droplets evaporate, cooling down the air parcel and making it descend even faster. A blob of cloud material is dragged down, creating the pouch of cloud.

AND

Sighting opportunities

Mammatus is one of the more bizarre cloud forms. Many people who see mammatus for the first time are awe-inspired. The mammatus with its bulges of smooth cloud, sometimes showing a high degree of ordering, is a remarkable sight.

Thunderstorms are ideal mammatus producers. The anvils of thunderstorms contain ice crystals, and the anvil is usually sharply bounded by clear air below it (since right next to a thunderstorm, convection is usually somewhat inhibited). Mammatus mostly occurs at the back (trailing) side of a storm, referring to its direction of movement: a trailing anvil is left over and quite frequenty shows the mammatus very well.

Mammatus is usually a small cloud, and subject to evaporation. This is why it is actually quite transparent, although it may not appear so as seen from below the cloud. When you are in an airplane and flying through mammatus, you will notice that it is actually hardly visible at close range.


So yes they are, to a certain extent, sayin as we dont get as many dramatic storms as the US for example!