Breast-Formation Clouds Appear in Hertfordshire,UK

by Christina 123 | August 21, 2008 at 07:44 am

2515 views | 22 Recommendations | 50 comments

Clouds in the scientific formation Mammatus - Latin for "boob-like"- have appeared in St. Albans, Herts. St. Albans is a popular site for pilgrims...although not for the clouds (until now...)

The bobbly clouds that make this image so startling are called mammatus clouds - a name derived from the Latin word for breast. They hang under the main body of other clouds.
"There is one prerequisite for a mammatus formation - a big thunderstorm - because they form on the back edge of retreating storms," says BBC broadcast meteorologist Peter Gibbs.
In storms, air moves in rapid "up draughts" and "down draughts" and mammatus clouds are essentially pockets of air and water droplets which have descended in downward draughts, he says.
While the whole cloud might measure 0.5 of a mile (0.8km) across, each mammatus cloud or "udder" is several metres wide.

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World_Groove

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 07:47 on August 21st, 2008

This is the Breast story I have read today!

Christina 123

at 07:49 on August 21st, 2008

Thanks World_Groove; those Romans - who brought us Latin - had a highly-developed sense of aesthetics, as we can see!

Uwe Paschen

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 07:53 on August 21st, 2008

Christina 123, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Our world is changing fast in every sense of the word.

Christina 123

at 08:28 on August 21st, 2008

Thanks, Paschen! Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

Uwe Paschen

at 08:32 on August 21st, 2008

Well said Christina, I agree.

rpshen

at 07:56 on August 21st, 2008

Cute little random fact for the day.

Christina 123

at 08:31 on August 21st, 2008

Thanks for the flag and th videos, rpshen! I am a great cloud watcher: see all sorts of things in them, although I guess mammatus is the first I've heard of it (was good at geography at school, but must have missed this one!) Great trivial story of the day.

rpshen

at 08:44 on August 21st, 2008

You`re most welcome. I`m glad you enjoyed them. You`re going to love the photos that are coming in. They are amazing!

Albert Milliron

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 14:08 on August 21st, 2008

Christina 123, I like this story. It's good stuff. Breast Clouds? No wonder they say keep looking up! Very unusal.

Christina 123

at 14:34 on August 22nd, 2008

Thanks politsite! I could see a clear face and hands in one of the photos!

46th North

at 16:50 on August 21st, 2008

This storm produced hail the size of baseballs 2.75 inches in diameter. Photo taken from the Bismarck, North Dakota weather office looking east.

46th North has contributed a photo to this story.

qanuta

at 17:34 on August 21st, 2008

These mammatus clouds followed an early evening thunderstorm in Flemington, NJ. I was enticed to poke my head outside by the green sky, and saw these clouds, which only lasted a few minutes. A short-lived rainbow followed as well to the east..

qanuta has contributed a photo to this story.

Jon S. Canada

at 17:37 on August 21st, 2008

Hi these pictures of cloud formations were taken in Edmonton Alberta Canada 2007 07 29.

Jon S. Canada has contributed a photo to this story.

twrebelxt

at 18:00 on August 21st, 2008

In my part of the world- I see Mammatus Clouds perhaps 3 times a year. I have always admired them. I was lucky to have my camera this day, as they were prevalent for an unusual amount of time. Its a beautiful sky in Nebraska- any day.

twrebelxt has contributed a photo to this story.

ChristmaswaK

at 18:42 on August 21st, 2008

These mammutus clouds appeared after quite a thunderstorm in Decatur, GA, USA.

ChristmaswaK has contributed a photo to this story.

Webb Zahn

at 18:59 on August 21st, 2008

Look at the full picture! You'll see the thunderstorm it is following!

Webb Zahn has contributed a photo to this story.

WolfWindshadow

at 19:18 on August 21st, 2008

This photo was taken the summer of 2007 outside my home.

WolfWindshadow has contributed a photo to this story.

NebraskaSC 123 (not verified)

at 19:32 on August 21st, 2008

These incredible Mammatus Captures were from after a Nasty Nebraska Supercell dropped 4 Tornado within city limits of Kearney Nebraska. One of the most powerful storms of the year. View More captures of this storm, View the Nebraska Thunderstorms Group on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/groups/nebraskathunderstorms/

Do a search within the group for May 29 2008! Check out some of the Kool captures of this storm!

Christina 123

at 14:59 on August 22nd, 2008

You have a striking landscape there in Nebraska, sort of like the "big country". The black and white photography is very effective. When I had my SLR I used to use 50 or 100 black and white film and you use a red filter to higlight the contrast between the sky and the clouds. Can be very dramatic.

truan

at 19:43 on August 21st, 2008

Howdy,

I sometimes think I live in the Mammatus capital. We have them commonly from May into October since we get quite a few large thunderstorms here. They are definitley my favorite part of a thunderstorm except for lightning.

Best wishes,

Van

http://www.flickr.com/photos/truan/sets/72157604488473792/

Christina 123

at 14:51 on August 22nd, 2008

Howdy Van! You have captured some truly wonderful shots there - I must relocate to your part of the world - I love thunder, lightning, the patter of heavy rain and howling winds - the whole works ( as long as I am safe & warm under the duvet!)

earlycj5

at 19:53 on August 21st, 2008

Mammatus clouds in Kansas from sometime in summer 2005 I think. I shot this on film actually and scanned it.

The Great Plains of the US are great for photos of cloud formations with wide open spaces and lots of interesting weather.

Although they can be startling, these are always nice to see, it ordinarily means that the bad weather has passed.

earlycj5 has contributed a photo to this story.

headlessness

at 20:30 on August 21st, 2008

Clouds in the Mammatus formation over Hackney in London.

headlessness has contributed a photo to this story.

andrea_75

at 23:40 on August 21st, 2008

2008.07.06 - Villa Pisani (PD)

During a visit to Villa Pisani in Padua (Italy) those clouds appeared in the sky and after less than one hour a storm came. Terrible weather but wonderful sky.

andrea_75 has contributed a photo to this story.

goranisevic

at 00:47 on August 22nd, 2008

These were very impressive clouds during a great thunderstorm above Ascoli Piceno central Italy. It's one of the very spectacular cloud formations but so rare in this region.

goranisevic has contributed a photo to this story.

felgab

at 01:03 on August 22nd, 2008

This photo was taken in L'Hospitalet, a city beside Barcelona. It was a menacing cummulonimbus with these mammatus, symptom of instability within. Fortunately, the cloud passed by!

felgab has contributed a photo to this story.

Beaulieu

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 01:07 on August 22nd, 2008

Christina 123, I like this story. It's good stuff. It also encouraged other people to share their experiences with wonderful photos.

Cybersoc

at 01:19 on August 22nd, 2008

I spotted these rather menacing, but beautiful, clouds over St. Albans last week.

More here: http://www.stalbansblog.co.uk/2008/08/weird-clouds.html

Cybersoc has contributed a photo to this story.

Canoecat

at 01:45 on August 22nd, 2008

Thank you for the invitation to add my photo:), it's a great story! These beautiful (but foreboding) Mammatus clouds were taken on June 13, 2008. To this day they still remind me of a disastrous tornado we had here in Edmonton on July 31, 1987. We called it "Black Friday". There were so many of these that day...