Internet Baffled by Unusual Clouds That Are ‘Freaking’ Everyone Out

An image of a unique cloud formation captured in South Africa has intrigued users on Reddit.
The image was shared on Reddit by a 21-year-old poster—who is known as Jay, the poster told Newsweek—whose username appears to have since been deleted. The post has garnered 9,700 upvotes since it was shared on September 24.
The image shows a yellow-hued cloud stretched vertically against a purplish-dark night sky. According to a later comment by the poster, the cloud was captured in Cape Town, South Africa.
The poster, who works in social media and did not share their full name, told Newsweek: “My boyfriend took this picture I don’t know how long ago, maybe one or two years ago. I wasn’t on Reddit at the time so I had no one to share it with and I came across it in my [picture] gallery and thought I would post it and see if people knew what it was.”
Noting that the image was taken in the backyard of the boyfriend’s home, the poster said “I never knew what it was. Obviously, it’s a cloud but why was it shaped like this and why did it show up for days? I don’t know when it disappeared, but people were freaking out.”
AccuWeather meteorologist Jesse Ferrell told Newsweek that “these are lenticular clouds,” which are “different from other clouds because they don’t form and move along, but rather sit in one place, continually re-formed as air moves through them, causing them to slightly morph over time.”
The cloud’s form takes its name from the Latin word lenticularis, which means lentil-shaped, according to Merriam-Webster, the meteorologist noted. “They often are saucer-shaped but can take many different forms, including oblong and jellyfish-shaped. In this case, you are looking upwards at two ‘stacked’ saucer-shaped lenticular clouds.”
Lenticular clouds are “the result of air rising to its condensation point over and downstream of an object, typically a mountain, although they can also result from waves generated in the atmosphere itself,” Ferrell explained.
Lenticular clouds are associated with waves in the atmosphere that develop when “relatively stable, fast-moving air is forced up and over a topographic barrier” that is situated more or less perpendicular to the direction from where the wind is blowing,” says the National Weather Service (NWS). “This deflection creates a gravity wave downwind of the topographic barrier not unlike a wave you might generate by throwing a pebble into a pond.”
Also known as UFO clouds or cap clouds, “lenticular clouds make it possible to get a rare glimpse at the crests of gravity waves. When air rushes over mountains and the conditions are right, with cold air and water vapor condensing into droplets, lenticular clouds form at the crest of the waves,” according to Earthdata, a NASA website.
Ferrell noted that on June 24, 1947, pilot Kenneth Arnold reported seeing “multiple mysterious, gleaming circular objects” along the crest of the Cascade mountains in Washington state.
According to the meteorologist, “it was one of the most famous UFO sightings—in fact, the exact moment when the term ‘flying saucers’ was coined.”
Ferrell noted that a U.S. Air Force investigation later concluded that the pilot had seen “disc-shaped wave clouds called lenticular clouds, which are not uncommon in the Cascades and on top of Mt. Rainier, the highest peak in the mountain range.”
Reddit users were perplexed by the unusual cloud formation in the recent post, with some sharing theories on what they believe it could be.
BubblesWaiffu said: “Wow, that night sky looks absolutely surreal! It almost feels like a scene straight out of a sci-fi movie.”
Crafty_Crab_7563 wrote: “Could be an upper atmosphere effect brought on by rocket launches? Idk [I don’t know] just a guess.”
Singular_Thought noted: “Could also be an exhaust plum from a rocket launch. Will need date time and location to confirm.”
X_CaptainPixel_x said it’s a “Yellow dust cloud that travels around the globe.”
Fine-Piano4980 wrote: “It’s clearly a giant cat paw trying to knock something off a table.”
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