Around the Next Corner With Wendy: I've Looked at Clouds from Both Sides Now...

With all that's happening in the world - the Olympic Games, war in Georgia, western aid workers getting bombed in Afghanistan and Paris Hilton entering the presidential race - I figured it was a good time to talk about something pressing and timely.

Like clouds.

Oh - you say - clouds are hardly at the forefront of the news media. Maybe you should pick a hotter topic, like Hugo Chavez or the death of the world's tallest woman.

Contre mon frere!

You see, clouds are cool, anytime. And it's much more than just the cumulus or cirrus - there are some rocking controversial cloud formations out there.

Take the "Lenticular" Cloud (or "lens shaped" for those of you who like plain English). It forms as a result of the wave-like action of moist air as it surfs over mountain peaks and valleys. These clouds are actually the crests of the wave, as it peaks high enough for the moisture to crystallize. They are like the rock-stars of the cloud world - they have their own paparazzi, photographers who scan the skies above mountain peaks everywhere hoping for a glimpse of a Lenticular Cloud hanging with Barak Obama or doing a bowl with Amy Weinhouse...

from here

Then there are "Mamatus" Clouds (and yes, the term is related to mammaries). An email that was circulating a few weeks ago had photos of these clouds taken in Hastings, NE be Jorn Olsen (evidently got a LOT of press for these amazing photos):

There is still a great deal of debate about how mammatus clouds are formed, though many of the theories involve instability and variable conditions within larger clouds. They seem to occur most frequently during the summer, when warm, moist air further destabilizes clouds. There is also some debate as to whether the shape of these clouds (so similar to the breasts of a human female) is offensive to children, and if they should be forced to wear modesty patches.

Then, we have "Noctilucent clouds" (from the Latin night shining). These are late sleepers - they only appear right at dusk, as a result of the low angle of the sun's rays hitting clouds that are very, very, very high in our atmosphere. Like, wow, they can't even get weather balloons that high. Although there have been a number of theories for how they're created, since conventional wisdom says that clouds shouldn't exist at those altitudes, the prevailing theory is related to global warming (which seems to be the catch-all theory of the decade - last decade it might have been deforestation, and the one before that, the Russians).