‘Surreal’ video shows underside of clouds that resembled spaceship atop NH mountain
The bizarrely shaped lenticular clouds that form around mountain peaks can easily be mistaken for UFOs, but their underside can be equally “surreal,” judging from video shared by researchers.
It was filmed atop Mount Washington in northeast New Hampshire, and shows a thick cap cloud slid past within reach of the ground, like a low-hanging ceiling.
The time lapse was recorded from a window at the Mount Washington Observatory, when sustained winds were 55 mph, observatory officials said in a Nov. 10 Facebook post.
“Today saw an exciting variety of lenticular and cap clouds in our area ... usually a sign of turbulence and high wind speeds,” the observatory wrote.
Cap clouds and lenticular clouds form “when wind is forced up and over a topographic barrier, such as a mountain, that is oriented perpendicular to the wind direction,” according to the National Park Service.
“While cap clouds occur directly over a mountain peak, lenticular clouds usually form on the leeward side of the mountain,” Ownyourweather.com reports.
“Cap clouds have a flat, dome-shaped form, while lenticular clouds have a layered or stacked shape in the form of a lens or saucer.”
Mount Washington’s summit stands at 6,288 feet and has a view of 130 miles on a clear day, New Hampshire State Parks reports.
The “private, nonprofit” observatory at the top is known for recording weather extremes, including “the world’s fastest surface wind speed ever observed by man: 231 mph,” in 1934.
The observatory’s video of the passing cloud has gotten 10,000 views and more than 1,200 reactions and comments, including people who reported the clouds resembled an “incoming spaceship” when seen from afar.
“Surreal! You can almost feel the pillow soft cloud flowing over you in the video,” Judy Rowe posted on Facebook.
“Just reach up and touch the sky!” Charlotte Lang wrote.
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