Lenticular Spaceship Invasion

[martinastro]

It was a remarkable day here with clear blue skies and warm Sun. At 18.45 BST I glanced out my window towards the west and seen a great display of Lenticular wave form clouds in the classic 'stacked' spaceship fashion which makes them so distinct. I walked to the top of a hill and took these images. Very nice ridge structure. The display looked good low in the sky with the Sun close by to the left. No doubt caused by air currents rising over the Sperrin Mountains. This was the best example I have ever seen from here.

[Paul]

Yes! Great shots Martin, Lentis at their best.

P.

[Roman White]

I see that clouds were very distant from you, Martin. Great shots!
 
Can someone tell me, do the lenticular clouds always need some mountainous relief or it isn't necessary? Because I live in a completely plain territory and I have never seen those clouds.

[martinastro]

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm really not a big fan of lentis because I haven't see many in the way of spectacular formations from N. Ireland until I seen this one. The recent capture by Paul is another good display to. I will be keeping my eye out for more. They are quite common here because I live at the sides of the Sperrin Mountains and Slieve Gallion so lenticulars are not uncommon. Excellent examples are much more rare.

I think you really need hills and moutnains nearby Roman top get them. Check out this link which shows very impressive images...

http://www.crystalinks.com/lenticular.html

Some of the images on there are mistakes. The long green image is a shelf cloud on a thunderstorm. Looks very similar to some of Mike Hollingshead's images.

And wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenticular_cloud

[Roman White]

(...) Check out this link which shows very impressive images...

http://www.crystalinks.com/lenticular.html

Oh my godness!  I think everyone needs to watch this link. That first image is unbelieveable, it is hard to imagine a better one. http://www.crystalinks.com/lenticularlogo.jpg

[brianb]

I think you really need hills and moutnains nearby

Yes - or at least something to make the air rise over an obstruction. The air needs to be stable and close to saturation at some point in the middle atmosphere too. Any instability will ruin the laminar flow needed to get the lenticular shapes.

Sometimes you get a whole chain of lenticular clouds arising from a single hill, can be tens of kilometres long and the clouds can reach up to several kilometres in height even when the obstacle is quite small.

When the air is saturated close to ground level, you get can a lenticular cloud sitting right on top of the obstruction, like a tablecloth draped over the hill, and a chain of lennies stretching away downwind.