There are some days when I think I'm going to die from an overdose of satisfaction.

- Salvador Dali
 

View from Wellington's Civic Square

My son, Wolfy, took these pictures.  The bottom picture he used to enter the "Postcards from Wellington" contest and won more than $100 in gift certificates from the Camera House.  He used them to buy more disposable cameras.

I discover that the unusual cloud shown above is a lenticular cloud.  Lenticular clouds are typically formed by high winds over rugged terrain and are particularly apparent when few other clouds are in the sky.  They can take on particularly strange, layered shapes.  Here are three others...

Lenticular Clouds in Antarctica

Lenticular clouds hover over Mount Erebus volcano in McMurdo Sound
where massive icebergs from the Ross Ice Shelf are clogging the sea in Antarctica.  (US Coast Guard photo)

Source: allhatnocattle.net

A Lenticular Cloud Over New Hampshire

Credit & © J D Rufo, J Koermer, Plymouth State College

Why does this cloud look so strange?  Actually, pictured above are several clouds all stacked up into one striking lenticular cloud.  Normally, air moves much more horizontally than it does vertically.  Sometimes, however, such as when wind comes off of a mountain or a hill, relatively strong vertical oscillations take place as the air stabilizes.  The dry air at the top of an oscillation may be quite stratified in moisture content, and hence forms clouds at each layer where the air saturates with moisture.  The result can be a lenticular cloud with a strongly layered appearance.  The above picture was taken in 1999 over Plymouth, New Hampshire, USA.

Source: antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov

A Lenticular Cloud over Windmills

© photo-mark.com

Is that a cloud or a flying saucer?  Both, although it is surely not an alien spacecraft.  Lenticular clouds can be shaped like a saucer, and can fly in the sense that, like most clouds, they are composed of small water droplets that float on air.  Above, a couple stopped their car near Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, USA to photograph this lenticular cloud behind picturesque windmills.

Source: antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov

Last Two, Unknown Locations

Source for "Golden Clouds": goonagoon.nasseh.ir

See also:

Sun Pillars - for more photos of unusual cloud formations...

For photos of the earth and moon, stained glass, sunsets on Wellington Harbour, Lady Fair, Civic Square, the old mill, the Whippany River, historical houses, Lake Parsippany and more clicking the "Up" button below takes you to the Index page for this Photographs section.