Weird fucking clouds

[Uraniun235]

Found at Something Awful









SA thread

This is the most goddamned thing I have ever seen in my life. My cousin called me around 9:30 this morning. He lives in Joplin, Missouri. He said that the most amazing type of cloud he has ever seen were forming over the city during a heavy thunderstorm. He said that each little "nodule" was moving independently of each other in all different directions at a very high velocity.

I didn't think much of it until the local website posted pictures of it this evening.

Apparently, meteorologists don't have a name for these clouds, and the citizens of Joplin, MO will get to name them.

These are the most amazing clouds I have ever seen in my life. The first thing that popped into my head was that they seemed to be ripped out of the movie GHOSTBUSTERS:

You can find more at www.ksntv.com

Picture source

[Shinova]

That does look like something out of a Ghostbusters movie.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Someone made an archive with more pics:

http://www.clickhalah.com/images/crazyclouds/

That's damn unsettling.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Warp storm! Chaos is upon us, repent, for only the Emperor can offer absolution!

[wautd]

Holy fuck! I'd go ID4 if I'd saw something like that

[Mrs Kendall]

Geezus! Look at how the clouds just get normal off to the left in this picture

That's nuts I like the pics with the lightening bolts too. Cool stuff man

[wautd]

Clearly, the fine citizens of Joplin did something to anger God

[KowaiYukiDono]

Looks like some form of temperature layering, with clouds.

Usually that kind of unusual front causes tornadoes. If you look, you can see where the clouds are spiralling where heavier air is dropping through. I mean, you can see where the next front is rolling in under in one picture, with normal clouds rolling in under the odd overcast-fog-clouds. Things.

Not that I'm a professional or anything. It just looks like that from my "I took high school science classes and got really high grades" standpoint.

It almost looks like what happens when you pour water through oil sitting on top of water.

That is so cool. I'm going to be speculating for days.

[Zed Snardbody]

If this stuff goes on a lot, this might explain why the south is so keen on god.

Reminds me of Lewis Black

"They didn't even have this kind of weather in the bible, and you know damn well if they did, after the writer wiped the poop out of his pants, he would have told us about it"

[McC]

This phenomenon is not limited to the South. I've seen it in Connecticut as well. It's extremely unnerving. The clouds seem to flow like a viscous liquid and the "nodules" or "dimples" are static while the clouds flow around them. They do typically preceed a thunderstorm, as mentioned above.

But they're creepy as shit.

[Dooey Jo]

Must be some seriously funky winds up in those clouds. I'd think this is similar to the way tornadoes are started. We get similar clouds here sometimes, though they tend to stay static and not flow around. Not fast anyway. But then again, we very rarely get tornadoes and our thunderstorms tend to be pretty boring. Though there was a pretty cool one last Sunday...

[Crossroads Inc.]

Dude, that is some seriously F*** Up stuff that is... I would give ANYTHING to have watched it

[Quadlok]

That's some wierd looking shit. My thought when I saw the first picture was that someone had Photoshopped the underside of an ice sheet into a picture. It being real and the discription of its movement makes it that much wierder.

[Alyrium Denryle]

yeah.... those do look like tornados that havent touched down yet... spiffy

[McC]

I apologize for the crudeness of this, but I did it quickly and simply so as to illustrate a point, not to win an art contest



This is what they looked like when I saw them. They seemed a lot like water flowing over a rigidly defined surface (...the air?) and they maintained this shape as they traveled. They were moving very quickly (high winds, even though there was virtually no wind where I was watching them) and followed the path the arrows indicate. I re-emphasize that the profile they had did not change, despite the clouds moving. Understand that I'm not saying that shape was retained as the clouds traveled, but rather that the clouds conformed to that shape as they moved through it, while the form they followed remained static.

I still feel like I'm not explaining that well enough, so let me phrase it as such. See that lowest dip? Okay, imagine I'm beneath that, standing still. The clouds move, but that dip is still directly above me. I haven't moved. The clouds are moving quickly. But that dip is still right there. All the clouds are conforming to that path as they move.

Weirdest thing I've ever seen.

[DocHorror]

Just remember: If someone asks you if you are a God you say YES!

[KowaiYukiDono]

[snip]
Understand that I'm not saying that shape was retained as the clouds traveled, but rather that the clouds conformed to that shape as they moved through it, while the form they followed remained static.
[snip]

Certain kinds of "fog machine chemicals" do that, too. Dry ice, when undisturbed, will, though that's not above you.

[Soontir C'boath]

Jesus shit, I thought all those photos were photoshopped but they're really FUCKING REAL?
Man, they look incredible. I should print them out and give them to the Earth Science teachers...

[Durandal]

I don't know what the folks in Joplin, Missouri did, but they sure done pissed God off good.

[Galvatron]

[Zed Snardbody]

Asshole.

[Spyder]

http://www.redcoat.net/pics/couldsecx.jpg

ROFLOL!

*save*

[Spanky The Dolphin]

God damn, those are some creepy clouds.

I'm sure glad we don't get shit like that in Iowa.

[Lord Zentei]

Are you kidding? I'd love to see those in RL.

[Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi]

I wouldn't mind getting those clouds in New Jersey either. If we're going to have crappy weather for most of the year, then we might as well get the creepy-looking clouds to go with it!