Interesting Clouds Stretch Across Ozarks Skies

First posted on 06-08-2010

Weather watchers in the Ozarks were treated to very unusual cloud formations as a storm system worked its way across the area.

According to the National Weather Service, “the balance of instability aloft and a relatively stable low level airmass helped to produce what was likely a potentially new form of clouds now under review by the World Meteorological Society.”

Undulatus asperatus, or simply asperatus, is a rare and newly recognized cloud formation that may have passed over the Ozarks yesterday. Proposed last year, asperatus is the first new cloud formation added to the International Cloud Atlas since 1951.

The name roughly translates to “roughened or agitated waves,” and the clouds looked like waves as observed from under the surface. Even though the skies looked dark and ominous, these clouds do not usually produce storms and normally dissipate quickly.

Click on any of the photos below to see a larger image: