For only the second time in my life, I saw these yesterday. I just HAD to search for a description and name. Here it is:
I saw lots of unusual cloud patterns when I lived in Colorado, the Rockies poking up into the high wind zones do some funny things with wind currents. The downside of that is flying in Colorado, I was on a flight once that hit a huge down draft as we were coming into land, it felt like the plane was falling out of the sky, and then we got accelerated off to the right so the plane was skidding sideways. Apparently a research B-52 had it’s tail fin blown off in a similar ocurrence in the same spot once.
Those are really neat. I’ve yet to see them in person.
I first saw lenticular clouds in CO. They occur fairly often here. Sometimes they glow with beautiful colors from the sun at low angles.
A plane I rode preparing to land in Denver experienced the same thing as what you described. We hit a violently turbulent patch, the plane suddenly elevator-dropped downward, and then it tilted and “skidded “with a sickening sideways lurch. The pilot saved it by quickly turning the plane at yet another sickening angle to climb back upward. It actually made me think of kayaking in surf…switching edges and veering.
Very interesting natural phenomena lately. A few days ago, we saw a dead buck on our property, we thought killed by a mountain lion. Game cam set up by the kill the next night showed a mountain lion coming in to eat, then dragging the carcass away.
And today we saw a (live) Northern Pygmy Owl perching on a post in mid-day.
Back to clouds. CO is where I first observed clouds moving in opposite directions, one layer right over the other. Blew me away, figuratively speaking.
Definitely neat. I would be very excited to see them.
Wow, kind of spooky having the lion take a deer right on your property. I grew up in Utah, and we own a family farm there now and I spend quite a bit of time there every year. I have seen tracks from mountain lions several times but have never seen one in person in Utah. Once I was cross country skiing in Right Fork Canyon, in Logan Canyon on Christmas Eve all by myself about three miles from my car, and saw from fresh tracks, I went around a corner in the trail and their was a bloody deer, that had not been dead long, lion tracks all over the place; that one kind of freaked me out, because I knew the lion was close by watching me, backed out of their as fast as I could in powder on skis. When I lived in Tucson I used to walk every morning in the mountains near my house. In the winter time there I saw mountain lions three or four times in the dark, they never bothered me, but I saw one stalking a lady jogger once, we scared it off, and I never saw her jogging there again.
I figure if there is a nice big deer already slain, then the lion isn’t so interested in eating me! BTW, yesterday we found a second dead buck not far away, though not inside our property. No blood evident. I hope the neighbors’ loose dogs did not cause it to stumble over the rocks and postholey snow, maybe breaking its legs. We have seen them chase deer right into our land, with them hot on the tail. Harassment of wildlife—an offense in which shooting the dogs is allowed.
We even had mountain lions near our house in the Front Range, and a couple of times on trails in Jefferson County, I suddenly found one who seemed equally surprised to have me less than 15 ft away. Both times, the lion turned tail and fled at the same time that I decided to turn around and bike/hike no further.
Something to consider next time you are in Utah: if it is close to dawn or dusk, stay far away from any cliffs or higher land areas where a lion might be paralleling your path of travel. Someone told me he was biking the CO Trail up from Waterton Canyon when he felt “something” was watching him. Upon looking up trail above a switchback, he saw a mountain lion tracking him. They supposedly attack from a position that makes it easier to bite the neck…
Those Kelvin Helmholzt clouds are enchanting! Thanks for posting them.
Rookie, you’ll like these, too:
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150716-nine-rare-and-beautiful-clouds
The last one shown is really bizarre.