One of my favorite Click2Pins to see is interesting cloud structures. In the weather community we often call these SLC (scary looking cloud) or FLC (funny looking cloud).
It might not sound scientific, but it’s certainly fun to classify. Today, we’re going to look at a FLC sent in from Sammy P in Pearland. His caption read “The sky is falling or jellyfish clouds.”
They do resemble a jellyfish—the top of the cloud looks like the jellyfish body, and the wispy part below looks like the little tentacles. How cute! But what are these jellyfish-looking clouds?
These are actually most common in dry climates, like in Arizona! The top of the cloud is a cumulus cloud (fair weather, pretty typical). The wispy bottom part of the cloud is virga. Virga is rainfall from a cloud that evaporates before it reaches the surface.
For there to be virga, there must be enough moisture in the atmosphere to make a cloud, but not enough to produce rainfall.
Here’s some more photos of “jellyfish clouds.”
We love to answer your questions! If you see a cloud you’d like identified, sent it in to Click2Pins!