Surreal Clouds

June 27, 2005 3:06 AM

Cumulonimbus Mammatus - interesting looking clouds
posted by Gyan (16 comments total)

The chaser folks think Jorn Olsen partakes in a wee bit of the Photoshop. Artistically nice though.
posted by rolypolyman at 3:24 AM on June 27, 2005

awesome. nothing wrong with adjusting contract and saturation, btw.
posted by moonbird at 3:38 AM on June 27, 2005

Previous related thread.
Now that is impressively trippy. I'd be expecting spaceinvaders to start falling from above if I saw that in the sky. Or something..
posted by peacay at 3:41 AM on June 27, 2005

Oh, thanks Gyan!
posted by peacay at 3:42 AM on June 27, 2005

"A relatively rare cloud phenomenon paid a visit to much of south central Nebraska late Saturday afternoon and evening (June 12) as mammatus clouds blanketed a large portion of the area. Mammatus clouds are the product of sinking air in the atmosphere, and are most commonly viewed when thunderstorms are in the area." - National Weather Service Forecast Office, Hastings NE. More true photos there.
posted by webmeta at 3:42 AM on June 27, 2005

My Meteorologist friend says that, in the business, those clouds are known as "pig tits."
posted by acetonic at 4:40 AM on June 27, 2005

"sky cottage cheese" ?
posted by nervousfritz at 5:16 AM on June 27, 2005

O richest azure canvas! O diaphanous jewelry of the sky!
Why does my heart tremble with this aching wonderment? Why?
My soul is o'erwhelmed by the heavens' delicate cornucopia!
Of these cloudy fog sculptures, that are unseen by those with myopia.
Yet are they not too fragile to be pronounced merely "pretty"?
Unless some uncouth mouth should suggest that they are reminiscent of a porcine titty
Sweet muses, prithee, grant me the skill to melt their silver hue,
Into golden poetry so that people will say "wow, was that by you?"
posted by the quidnunc kid at 5:35 AM on June 27, 2005

No - please do not e-mail me and thank me - it is my pleasure to share my refined gift of word-song with you lesser beings. If I have given you but a droplet-taste of the violent passions that shake the true poet, then I have brought a sliver of sunlight into the dark caves of your minds.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 5:39 AM on June 27, 2005

Rows and floes of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons ev’rywhere
I’ve looked at clouds that way

But now they only block the sun
They rain and snow on ev’ryone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way
I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It’s cloud illusions I recall
I really don’t know clouds at all

-Joni Mitchell
Both Sides Now (Clouds)
</obvious>
posted by spock at 6:09 AM on June 27, 2005

My Meteorologist friend says that, in the business, those clouds are known as "pig tits."

Thus mammatus, as in mammary or mammal. Even the scientific term means boobies. I'd say they look more like big testicles. Wonder what Freud would say about that?
posted by Pollomacho at 6:36 AM on June 27, 2005

Wow. It looks like some of these were taken on Jupiter.

BTW: Thanks quidnunc kid.
posted by sourwookie at 7:29 AM on June 27, 2005

Does anyone have a non-404 link for this? The whole server was dead this morning, and now it's up but the page is gone.
posted by majick at 9:23 PM on June 27, 2005

majick, looks like MeFi & Fazed completely trashed the site and there's no google cache even. But there's some links in the old thread I linked up the page - anyways these clouds are ubiquitous on the net.
posted by peacay at 9:51 PM on June 27, 2005

pictures available here
posted by Edible Energy at 9:18 PM on July 14, 2005

Corrected link
posted by kirkaracha at 5:01 PM on July 16, 2005