Mountain wave clouds put on 'pretty cool display' in southern Alberta
Formation created by warm air flowing over the Rockies
Balmy weather has brought some unusual cloud formations to southern Alberta — and Calgarians have noticed, snapping photos of the long narrow clouds that formed in the sky above the city.
Kyle Brittain, freelance video journalist and weather expert, said the clouds are created by warm Pacific air flowing over the mountains. Based on satellite imagery, he said it looks like the clouds formed from northwest Calgary to northeast of Lethbridge.
"It was a pretty cool display this morning. I was really impressed. You get these chinook clouds all the time with chinook winds," Brittain said.
"But it really depends on the profile of how the winds are blowing through different levels of the atmosphere … just the right combination [and] you get a really spectacular display of cloud just based on how the atmosphere interacts with the land below, like the mountains."
"It's just a really cool kind of effect living east of the Rockies when the wind is blowing over the Rockies," he said.
Brittain said the clouds are called mountain wave clouds, or, technically, altocumulus standing lenticular.
Check out these images captured by Calgarians:
Matt Melnyk took this photo Friday morning of the mountain wave clouds north of Calgary.
CBC videographer James Young snapped this photo near Indus, Alta.
Matt Melnyk took this photo of the mountain wave clouds on a rural road north of Calgary.
Jackson Martin snapped this shot in northwest Calgary.
CBC videographer Monty Kruger shot this photo looking from northwest Calgary toward the city centre.