photo #8612329

Lyndy Belchere (Cloud Appreciation Society Member 61,208) was on the freeway in Santa Barbara, California, US, speaking on the phone to her friend a few miles south, when she saw this Altocumulus lenticularis cloud above glowing in the eerie light of the full Moon. She told her friend to go outside to take a look at it and asked her to take a photograph of it for her.Lenticularis clouds, named from the Latin lenticula, meaning ‘little lens’ or ‘lentil’, form when strong winds flow over mountains or hills, rising into wavelike crests downwind of the peaks, where the air cools enough to create smooth, often disc-shaped clouds. Lyndy and her friend’s one was much more extended in shape than a disc, likely stretching over many miles. It looks more like an enormous barrage balloon than a little lentil – captured by the coordinated efforts of two nighttime cloudspotters.