Don't hang around 'cause two's a crowd

June 27, 2008 10:46 AM

10 Rare Clouds. 20 Cool Clouds. NASA clouds. List of Cloud Types (wiki). previously
posted by swift (28 comments total)

Two's a cloud?
posted by jabberjaw at 10:57 AM on June 27, 2008

Amazing photos. Odd that the url of Cool Things (your first link) is collthings.co.uk, no?
posted by amro at 11:00 AM on June 27, 2008

That first link is really awesome. I love clouds that make me feel the size of an ant.
posted by DU at 11:03 AM on June 27, 2008

If I found myself under a sky containing nearly any of the clouds pictured in Rare Clouds link, my first thought would be 'Wow, that looks absolutely amazing'.

My second thought would be to get underground as quickly as possible, because it's pretty obviously the end of the world and the alien/ demon/ Cthulhu monsters are just about to break through and wreck some shit up.
posted by quin at 11:18 AM on June 27, 2008 [1 favorite]

Awesome clouds!
posted by Vindaloo at 11:19 AM on June 27, 2008

I've been under a sky filled with stratocumulus clouds. Not subtle ones, either, but massive rolls of clouds from horizon to horizon. Bizarre.
posted by MrMoonPie at 11:36 AM on June 27, 2008

Nice links. And this is my favorite thing ever for today.
posted by lekvar at 11:41 AM on June 27, 2008

Mt Rainier in western Washington state is a relatively common hang out for lenticular clouds. Pilots are typically advised to stay clear of the lens shaped bad boys.
posted by bz at 11:51 AM on June 27, 2008

As a photographer, I just love clouds. They can do some really fascinating things. I'd love to see those mammatus clouds some day!
posted by geeky at 11:52 AM on June 27, 2008

I fucking love clouds. I'm sure I've seen something very reminiscent of the roll clouds. It was wild. Clouds are the reason I can't get bored in planes. No matter how many times I fly, I can just completely lose myself staring out the window at the cloud cover.

Also, lekvar, that's pretty much the ultimate myspace-pose-and-point-camera-at-self picture...
posted by slimepuppy at 11:55 AM on June 27, 2008

These pictures from the first link are all very sweet; I'm going to print some out and use them to confuse children next winter. We teach a class where we have the kids identify clouds and then talk about what kind of weather is associated with which clouds. So I was going through the link with a coworker and it was all fine and dandy and sciencey - until we came across Number Five. As he said, well, children, if you see that cloud, it tells you that whatever the weather's going to do next just doesn't fucking matter anymore.
posted by mygothlaundry at 11:58 AM on June 27, 2008

I've seen three and taken pictures of one (number two). Never knew what they were called tho....thanks for the link!
posted by gigbutt at 12:21 PM on June 27, 2008

Google around for the Australian morning glory cloud. Those are some spectacular formations, and one favorite pastime of Australian ultralight fliers is to "surf" around on those clouds.
posted by crapmatic at 12:26 PM on June 27, 2008

I remember seeing the roll clouds on a trip to Cedar Point (an amusement park in Ohio on a peninsula). After a bit of intermittent delays, they announced that the park was closed due to impending thunderstorms. My brother, cousin and I started out toward the parking lot, and behind us we saw this massive roll cloud coming in. We start hauling ass and just barely made it to the car before the sheets of rain hit. It was like some weird movie, being able to look back and see that it was pouring rain just fifty feet behind us (and gaining rapidly).
posted by klangklangston at 12:28 PM on June 27, 2008

One good thing about living in the Texas panhandle is that in addition to some of the best landlocked sunsets you'll see, we also get a lot of good clouds.

Looking through the list I noticed that I've seen several of them out here, with the stratocumulus being the weirdest, at least from my POV. It looked like Jupiter, if Jupiter was blue and white.
posted by sotonohito at 12:29 PM on June 27, 2008

Is this the sky equivalant of surfing?
posted by damn dirty ape at 1:12 PM on June 27, 2008

A friend just sent me this video of "fire rainbow" or circumhorizontal arc clouds (shown in the last photo under 20 Cool Clouds) taken on 6/25 at Port Townsend WA:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NqL9Ez4hLU

I like the part where she says "That's not pretty -- it's fucking amazing!"
posted by ottereroticist at 1:32 PM on June 27, 2008

Magnificent. Thank you for showing me something very, very different than the essentially meaningless crap three feet in front of my nose today.
posted by scatman at 1:44 PM on June 27, 2008

Welcome our Sylph Overlords
posted by xod at 2:55 PM on June 27, 2008

I saw an oddly-shaped structure in the sky once. It was a huge dome, as if a bowl filled with air were being pushed underneath the water, with mammatus clouds within it. It was beautiful, but somewhat scary.
posted by sonic meat machine at 3:07 PM on June 27, 2008

I.LOVE.CLOUDS! and these made my day.
posted by bluesky43 at 3:21 PM on June 27, 2008

You say lenticular clouds. I say UFO.
posted by nax at 3:27 PM on June 27, 2008

*The* iconic image of my teens.
posted by nax at 3:35 PM on June 27, 2008 [1 favorite]

*The* iconic image of my teens.

[nit]
The really iconic "Earthrise" photo was from Apollo 8, not Apollo 11.
[/nit]
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 4:12 PM on June 27, 2008

Nowadays you can even make your own cloud and use it as advertising.
posted by Navidson at 5:25 PM on June 27, 2008

Here's some HDR clouds on Flickr.
posted by swift at 6:10 PM on June 27, 2008

This makes me want to remove all of my other favourites. Thanks!
posted by sunshinesky at 8:10 AM on June 29, 2008

yeah, nitpicky. Thanks so much for setting me straight. Hope that helps you sleep better tonight.
posted by nax at 8:45 AM on June 29, 2008