Calgary·Photos

Mountain wave clouds put on 'pretty cool display' in southern Alberta

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.  

Formation created by warm air flowing over the Rockies

Mountain wave clouds gather across Alberta skies

2 years ago
Duration 0:21
Weather expert Kyle Brittain says the clouds can form when the wind is blowing over the Rocky Mountains and is generating downstream waves. Credit: Heather L.

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." 

long clouds in a sepia coloured sky over a snowy field.
Altocumulus standing lenticular, or mountain wave clouds, near Carseland, Alta. (James Young/CBC)

"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. 

clouds over a blue sky. a red barn can be seen in the distance

CBC videographer James Young snapped this photo near Indus, Alta. 

a snowy field with three sections of cloud in the sky above

Matt Melnyk took this photo of the mountain wave clouds on a rural road north of Calgary.

clouds in a blue sky

Jackson Martin snapped this shot in northwest Calgary. 

a billow of cloud can be seen in the sky around sunrise. there are pine trees that are backlit by the sunrise

CBC videographer Monty Kruger shot this photo looking from northwest Calgary toward the city centre. 

clouds in the sky with the silhouette of downtown in the foreground