Name that cloud

[Flap40]

About twenty miles out from Amsterdam this morning we spotted this cloud.

http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~jodel/cloud/Cloud2.jpg

The picture shows it as more solid than it really was. It looked like the sort of cloud burst that you get out of CB's but this appeared to be a heavy snow shower out of stratus. What sort of cloud is it?

Here is a closer shot from a lower angle.

http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~jodel/cloud/Cloud1.jpg

Answers appreciated!

[Metman]

Could be...
Stratocumulus stratiformis praecipitatio (or virga) cumulogenitus

http://www.interklasa.pl/chmury/pics/z10518.jpg

Too high for St, probably too low for Ac

[Volmet South]

I agree ! I was trying to find the power station cooling towers at the base of the photo however it may indeed be virga however the "donor cloud" looks a bit thin. Perhaps there's a coffee shop just out of the frame ????? :hmm:

[Miserlou]

Looks like an isolated nimbostratus, that is to say that there is precipitation and little vertical development.

Of course it could that it is more than one type of cloud. It is a very fluid medium.

Nice photo, though.

[normal_nigel]

Have you all got beards?

[Metman]

Surely it was the NHS glasses, kipper tie, and sandals (with socks) that gave it away??? :8

[skydriller]

Scenes like the ones above are what makes me enjoy flying so much. I had the pleasure of being airbourne myself yesterday as the cold weather moved rapidly down the southwest coast of France - Great visibility and rapidly changing cloud formations with little rain/snow showers about.

That second photograph is beautiful. Share it with the world and post it on Airliners or something too.

Regards, SD..

PS. what were you flying/where etc.

[Flap40]

Thanks for the answers. It looked so strange as there were plenty of cb's and tcu offshore and down the coast dropping white stuff everywhere but this strange cloud was all on its own and giving at least as much show as the rest.

The second picture is at about 5 miles on the approach for 06 at Schiphol.

[TURIN]

Have a word with the glider chaps on Private flying forum.

What they don't know about meteorology........

[bookworm]

The picture shows it as more solid than it really was. It looked like the sort of cloud burst that you get out of CB's but this appeared to be a heavy snow shower out of stratus. What sort of cloud is it?

My guess would be that it's virga out of a small shower without much vertical extent. If it were rain, you'd hardly notice the precip, but since it's snow, it's much more noticeable, particularly on the photo -- which is really beautiful.

[normal_nigel]

Yep.

Beards tank tops and brown brouges.

[Megaton]

Norman, they're brogues and if you find it tedious why don't you lurk elsewhere?

[low n' slow]

A previously very active CB cloud in the dissipating stage?
nice pics!
regards/lns

[RUDAS]

any of you seen those Thomson.co.uk ads on sky news weather...? you sound like that weather guy...Oh you just missed a patch of altostratus!:E

[Pielander]

This thread has reminded me to ask about a certain weather formation I saw last Saturday (Nottingham area).

It was a very calm but murky, overcast day. At about 1000 ft, looking horizontally, it looked like there was a solid layer of grey cloud on top, then more grey murky stuff underneath, with a thin layer of vividly orangey-brown stuff in the middle. Sorry - no picture.

Could the brown stuff have been an inversion layer, like the ones you see in Summer? (Rather like a 's*** sandwich', if you like!)

[Skylark_air]

The best pictures are taken from anything over 100ft on clear days, with snow on the ground, because there is less haze than when it's just plain sunny.

Which is a pity, because we never get any snow here in the UK anymore, (although this year we've had more than in recent years).

Maybe I should start taking more flights Northeast. Currently we're only being chartered for Spain and Italy.

[Permenant Standby]

Beards and sandals...must be!

[Flugplatz]

Great shot!

It does indeed look like the disapating stage of a CB but as if all of the upper 4/5ths has mysteriously been removed. My guess is it something to do with a localised low-level inversion (ground cooler than upper air as you say it was early morning) and the 'invisible' top part of the 'cloud' consists of warmer air holding the water vapour in suspension. That flat terrain would also tend to inhibit orographic mixing giving a temperature-only type of cooling gradient. As the water vapour circulates at the lower part of the air parcel it hits the dew point and condenses, in this case looking like it freezes fairly rapidly and then falls as very light snow.

I don't know if there is a specific name for this type of cloud, perhaps you could name it after yourself? as long as you're not called "Nigel Scroggins" or something similar (F/O: Oh my God! there's a "NS" ahead! Captain: Good grief! they ain't paying me enough for this caper! I'm turning this crate around and heading for that last airport with the known windshear)

OK that's enough of that, having combed my "Jack Hargreaves" beard, I am off to smoke my pipe and listen to a bit of quality Jethro Tull whilst wearing my brown polyester flares.

Flug

:8

[funfly]

I dunno what cloud it is but I have printed off the picture, thank you for sharing it with us.
This is what flying is all about.

[palgia]

It funny to see how all of a sudden we are all experienced meteorologists ready to provide technical explanations with all sorts of conjectures.:p Its stunning how us pilots, despite having an infinitely small amount of knowledge in technical fields such as meteorology, engineering or human factors, are always the first ones to shout their ideas outload.:p
Some would say... that's what flying is all about!!! ;)

Having said that, its my turn now :}

Looking at the pictures, it looks like its just a cloud falling out of the sky. No big deal really. After all, clouds are made of water (either solid or liquid).... and there's this mysterious thing called gravity that will pull it all the way down to ground if it can. Most of the times you don't see it falling too long because the water simply evaporates. Other times, like in this pic, the air beneath the cloud is humid enough so that the water droplets/ice crystals (depending on temp) will not evaporate/sublimate right away and so you can see it falling through a depth of air.
Not an uncommon sight at all, except this pic shows the water/ice reaching all the way to the ground (most likely its ice).

IMHO it makes no sense trying to categorize this cloud into some broad preset types bases on height. That is not the purpose of having all those cloud categories/abbrieviations. Once you have a pic, that's the best type of desciption you can give it. Mother Nature doesn't look up cloud types in a book when it makes clouds...

palgia