Posted on 06/08/2009 12:06:02 PM PDT by TaraP
Whipped into fantastical shapes, these clouds hang over the darkening landscape like the harbingers of a mighty storm. But despite their stunning and frequent appearances, the formations have yet to be officially recognised with a name. They have been seen all over Britain in different forms -from Snowdonia to the Scottish Highlands - and in other parts of the world such as New Zealand, but usually break up without producing a storm. And some experts believe the stormy weather phenomenon deserves its very own classification. Experts at the Royal Meteorological Society are now attempting to make it official by naming it 'Asperatus' after the Latin word for 'rough'. If they are successful, it would be the first variety of cloud formation to be given a new label in over half a century 'It is a bit like looking at the surface of a choppy sea from below,' said Gavin Pretor-Pinney, founder 'We try to identify and classify all of the images of clouds we get in, but there were some that just didn't seem to fit in any of the other categories, so I began to think it might be a unique type of cloud.' He added: 'The underside of the clouds are quite rough and choppy. It looks very stormy, but some of the reports we have been getting suggest that they tend to break up without actually turning into a storm.' The Royal Meteorological Society is now gathering detailed information for the days and locations where the asperatus clouds have been seen in an attempt to understand exactly what is causing them. Officials will then apply to the UN's World Meteorological Organisation in Geneva to have the new cloud type considered for addition into the International Cloud Atlas, the system used by meteorologists across the globe.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
God must have had such fun creating the universe and making it so beautiful.
;-)
Love Roxie
Thread hijack alert. I adore Borders...
Why, what else can we call these new and exciting clouds? Clouds that indicate change? Clouds that are of many colors? Clouds that are seen worldwide...
(THUMP)(drag)(lock door)
Announcer, in deep Charlton Heston voice: We got this one. Stop all the others before they name it after... HIM.
This is exactly what we saw here in the high desert last week. Amazing.
INDEED.
THX
Interesting.
Nice!
"That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which it may be said, 'See, this is new'? It has already been in ancient times before us." (Ecc. 1:9,10)
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