What do those ET's want with our mountain?

Yikes! Now here’s a lenticular cloud worth its liquid water content (LWC).

Oops, did I say lenticular? Around here, most folks call ‘em spaceships. My wide-angle lens just couldn’t get wide enough to capture the full effect. It takes a mighty cloud to morph Mount Shasta.

With an estimated volume of 108 cubic miles, Mount Shasta logs in at 14,179 feet above the rising sea level. According to those in the know, observational and modeling studies of mass loss from glaciers and ice caps (see pictures below) indicate a contribution to sea-level rise of 0.2 to 0.4 mm/yr averaged over the 20th century.

Back to capturing, though. This mighty cloud blew in with the sunset not that long ago, folks. Without a doubt it was the biggest one of ’08.  If it was chocked full of ET’s, we’re all in trouble. At least we won’t have to be ashamed of our leader–come January, that is.

Technically speaking, weather people call these clouds altocumulus standing lenticularis or ACSL.  I can’t figure out why the weather-namers mix an English word with two Latin ones.

Moving on.  Wave clouds form when the wind hits a topographic feature, such as a mountain, and get deflected up and over the peak, thereby creating a gravity wave downwind of the obstruction, i.e. mountain.  The clouds only materialize when sufficient moisture is in the air, but the wave pattern in the atmosphere may still be there.

That’s why you don’t see airplane pilots (unless they’re gliders) buzzing around tall topographic features like mountains.  The downdraft could suck them under.  Here’s the thing, folks, lenticular clouds may look like they’re standing still, but they ain’t.  These clouds are constantly forming in the updraft and dissipating in the downdraft and sometimes contain winds of 50 knots or more.  14 more knots and they’d be a hurricane.

So let this be a lesson to you. Don’t fly your motorized vehicle near a mountain. If you’re a glider pilot, though, be my guest.

The same combination of winds and updrafts that allows the cloud to form also provides a rapid lift and a long flight in a glider.  Glider pilots spend long hours trying to catch the wave or be the wave.

Mountain wave schematic

A view down the Whitechuck Glacier in North Cascades National Park in 1973

The same view as seen in 2006, where this branch of glacier retreated 1.9 kilometers (1.2 miles)