photo #6547253

When warm, moist air encounters a hill or a mountain, it is forced to rise. And as it rises, the moisture it contains can cool and condense to form clouds. We refer to clouds that form in this way as orographic clouds. Jim Stratton (Cloud Appreciation Society Member 63,267) spotted this orographic Stratus over Isla de los Estados, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, with a layer of Altocumulus stratiformis above. The indigenous Haush people who once inhabited Tierra del Fuego called this island Jaiwesen, which means ‘region of cold’. Was this a reference to the low temperatures found at the peaks of these hills that could cause such clouds to develop?