Mystery clouds

Like Russ, I don't see anything unusual
just clouds forming and disappearing, they do that all the time


Dave

 

I can only guess that the film maker considers it a mystery that he did not have to pan his camera to follow a horizontal movement of the clouds forming and disappearing. Perhaps he/she should reflect upon renaming the video to a less leading description.

 

Could be a cumulus cloud forming at the dew point of rising hot air from the ground (thermal up rising cumulus cloud) being kicked off by a region of rotor turbulence overhead which is found under some clear blue sky wave wind flow conditions.

Sorry this is hard to write on an iPad

On the following website look for the section 3 graphic.
http://www.briangwilliams.us/weather-climate/land-and-sea-breezes.html
Under the sections 3.Winds due to topographic barriers

I think the cloud is a cumulus being kicked up from the ground because of an overhead rotor air instability hence its stationary position, I think you can see the descending part of the cloud, it could be the actual rotor cloud but it doesn't have the right rotation in it which leads me to think it could be a vertical rising cumulus cloud leading into the uprising part of the rotor, all the usual overhead rotor and waves cloud cant seen because the conditions are not just right for further cloud formation.

We would use these thermals to gain height in a glider/sailplane, then climb into the rotor it is not to turbulent and then into the overhead wave.

I could easily be wrong as well.

Was there a large mountain upwind within 3-10 miles?

The fact the clouds come and go 3-4 times over 20 min in a stationary position means it's a wind flow driven phenomena and not the usual heat convection thermal/cumulus

 

weird that they all take the same rough shape

 

No mountain but there is large oil refinery nearby. I used to live a few blocks from the refinery and there were some weird atmospheric effects on occasion. (Along with the explosions and fires every few years.)

 

well there is a large hill area there on the coast

gosh, been a few years since my last visit to that area

well nothing unusual with that either

did you take this video ? if you did,

what direction were you facing ?
what is on the ground directly below the cloud formation area ?


Dave

 

Clouds forming and disappearing? Happens every day. There appear to be trees below the clouds. This could be due to evapotranspiration, combined with temperature changes. Without more context, its just guessing.

 

Well, the video is elapsed, which is why it looks like the cloud is appearing and disappearing almost immediately. If we all sat there to watch it happen, it definitely would not look like that. We probably would not have even noticed.

 

It's a cumulus type cloud, so it's being produced by warm air rising, probably from some heat source on the ground since the position is fairly constant.
There are hundreds of possible heat sources on the ground, a small forest fire or a factory chimney are two obvious ones.

 

Cumulus type clouds usually do move with the general direction of the wind, taking along with them the uprising thermals which feed them.
A well established cumulus cloud is a self sustaining system so long as some amount of warm air is available at a low level to sustain it.
In this case the system is not self sustaining, it starts up then stops, then starts again in the same place , so it must have been produced by a localized hot spot on the ground, or as somebody said, an unusual wind circulation setup produced by local landscape features such as nearby hills