photo #5157724

When flying over Kansas, US, Amy Kenworthy (Cloud Appreciation Society Member 48,942) spotted this blanket of Stratocumulus undulatus clouds. (Some call them Mackerel clouds) Its parallel rows form perpendicular to the wind, developing in the rising and dipping flow that results from the shearing effect of the winds above and below the cloud differing considerably in their speeds or directions. While this sort of wind shear can cause a little turbulence, at least Amy and any other window-seat cloudspotters could take their minds off it with the in-flight entertainment: landscape features glimpsed through gaps in the ribbed cloud blanket below.