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Mammatus Clouds

By Liana

Staff Writer

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What are these things? Are they some kind of growth, making its home in the clouds? Or are they an armada of alien craft, here to conquer Earth? Though it may be hard to believe, they are actually real clouds in our sky.

These clouds, called mammatus clouds, usually form on the bottom of (much more common) cumulonimbus clouds. How do mammatus clouds form? First, the unreleased bits of precipitation (e.g. rain, hail) cool air within the storm cloud. The cool air sinks. However, the sinking cool air soon meets and collides with warm air, causing sac-like clouds to form.

If you see these, be assured that they are not dangerous. In fact, they usually signal that the thunderstorm is dying. Also, if you see these, you should also consider yourself lucky—mammatus clouds are a rare event.

So though these clouds may look freaky, almost otherworldly, they are 100% nature’s creation, reminding us of nature’s awesome brilliance.

Source:

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/weather/tg/wmamatus/wmamatus.htm>

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