6/25/2006: Rare cloud formation over Iowa

Undertoad • Jun 25, 2006 12:42 pm
Image

The clouds covered everywhere and roiled and boiled and moved like ocean waves. They said it looked like Independence Day, or massive sand dunes in the sky. I say... Iowa, you have been goatse'd by nature!

Local TV KCRG has a larger gallery of 16 great images of this phenomenon, which they say "looks like severe weather but isn't". Apparently these "wave clouds" (Wikipedia entry) are more commonly seen over mountainous areas, but somehow wound up getting created over flatlands in this case, which led to people getting all excited and taking pictures of the sky.

At that story link, check out the "Time Lapse of Wave Clouds" video - that's the most mind-boggling vision of what they were seeing, and really shows why they thought it was aliens.
xoxoxoBruce • Jun 25, 2006 1:38 pm
It must have fairly widespread because several people have posted pictures of it on Wunderground the last few days.:3eye:
rkzenrage • Jun 25, 2006 4:34 pm
End days!
richlevy • Jun 26, 2006 1:04 am
This is your planet.

This is your planet on drugs.
Griff • Jun 26, 2006 7:09 am
rkzenrage wrote:
End days!

Cool! Do you realize how many generations of people weren't here to catch the end of the show?
LabRat • Jun 26, 2006 11:02 am
See, we have more than corn and hog manure!! Cool stuff occasionally happens here too!
MaggieL • Jun 26, 2006 11:10 am
When you're learing to fly, you're taught all about mountain wave because it can kill you. If this is all it takes to convince Iowans that they're being invaded by aliens, then we now have the explanation for a lot of UFO reports. :-)
xoxoxoBruce • Jun 26, 2006 8:10 pm
LabRat wrote:
See, we have more than corn and hog manure!! Cool stuff occasionally happens here too!
But like everything else that's cool, it was just passing by.:lol:
LabRat • Jun 27, 2006 12:26 pm
:rollhappy

:p
Elspode • Jun 28, 2006 1:01 pm
Iowa got bored, so it did The Wave?