Here are some super cool mammatus clouds that many of us saw thursday evening. This type of cloud formation is often seen around here this time of year on the back side of a passing mega storm. In this case, the storm really turned out not to be much by Missouri standards, but it nevertheless looks cool. I learned on the news that these unusual clouds are one of the few, or maybe the only type of cloud that is formed from sinking air, rather than rising air.
Which would make sense, since we usually see them after a strong cold front has come through, and cold air sinks!
What I think is particularly interesting about this set of clouds and the photo is that it reminds me of some of the scenes from war of the worlds where the space ships were coming down. Fortunately this storm was not followed up with an alien invasion.
If you are curious about the camera settings on this photo, here you go…
1/100sec at f/6.3
17mm
ISO 800
0.6 ND Grad filter (hard edge)
