ALIEN INVASION???

That's what a lot of people would have thought back in the 50's and 60's during the UFO craze had they seen these pictures. Friday afternoon here on my hill in southern Indiana we had one of those rare treats to see something really amazing in the sky. Because of high winds that day and the perfect conditions we had an invasion of lenticular clouds fly across out hill.

Lenticular clouds are those strange saucer-shaped clouds you might see on very windy days, especially in areas where there are large hills and mountains. Some are small and some can be really large. High mountains like Mt. Ranier, Mt. Fiji in Japan, Mt. St. Helens have been capped with very large lenticulars that made them look like they were wearing an umbrella. Mt. Washington in the Presidential Mountain Range in New England is one of the best places in the world to catch a lenticular because of the winds there. I've been fortunate enough to actually watch them form over Mt. Jefferson below me during a visit there in 2004. They've very easy to distinguish from all other clouds because of their saucer shape and many times they have been called in to airports and military bases as actual flying saucers.

I've always known the winds did some strange things as it has crossed this hill. I've watched storm fronts come in and then suddenly slow down as they approached our ridge. My theory has always been that the strong winds coming across the valley to the west suddenly shoot up the ridge and in front of the storm, slowing it down or even temporarily stopping it before the winds behind it finally pushed it across the tops of the hills. From what I saw Friday I'm an even bigger believer or it.

I noticed that as the clouds approaced the hill a round smoothe cap began to form on top of it. This was a very windy day and I'm sure the winds at the upper altitudes were well over 100 mph. Our winds on the ground were at times gusting to 40 mph. When these winds hit a large hill or mountain or mountain range it causes a wave affect with the lenticulars forming on top of the waves (a later picture shows some of those waves with one cloud in particular). (Jeff if I'm wrong please correct me.) The caps on the puffy cumulus clouds didn't start forming until they began to come in contact with the wave. That would be about a mile away from the top of the hill. When contact was made the lenticular caps quickly appeared and began riding the waves. I guess you could say in a way the clouds were doing their own bit of surfing on air. In a few cases the caps became very large giving the cotton ball cloud a nice umbrella to shape itself with. Needless to say I was going a little nuts watching all of this happen right in front of my eyes on my own little hill. This much activity usually only happens on the best mountains.

To help really bring the clouds out I snapped a polarizer filter over the lens. I think this particular cloud was my favorite although the first picture of the string of lenticulars is pretty cool too. The other strange thing is the entire even lasted only about an hour and a half. When the winds began to die down the lenticulars began the break up and disappear. Not long after these pictures were take it was just the same old puffy cotton balls floating around. I'm adding some more pictures from that day I spent watch this in awe. Of course we knew they weren't really flying saucers. But then again....we didn't really know what was on the inside of the clouds either. Hmmm....kind of makes you wonder doesn't it.