Undulatus Asperatus: Close Encounters

In the November 7th issue of Newsweek, George Will poked fun at Al Gore and at what Will claims is the fuzzy science behind the Global Warming hysteria.  He is so logical, I always find myself starting to nod in agreement when I'm reading him, even when he's wrong. No nodding this time, though.  While reading Will's "The Truth About Global Warming," I was flashing back on something I saw in August, in my own back yard, that makes me a believer in...well, if not in global warming, then in something new, different, and strange outside.  Logic fails me when it comes to Undulatus Asperatus.

   Heads up, Chicken Little.  There's something new in the skies and I've had a close encounter with it. In August, I noticed a looming, lowering sky outside my kitchen window...not really unusual for our area, where tornadoes and hurricanes hang out, but different enough to make me go outside for a wider view.   At very low altitude, something deep, dark, and cone-shaped was boiling right over my neighbor's house.  I've seen tornadoes and water spouts from a distance and this didn't really look the same.  It looked like a giant bosom suspended above me. I was mesmerized.  I didn't feel exactly safe, but I couldn't turn away from it, either.   My left brain was running through the latin names of cloud formations I'd learned, all in vain; my right brain was bracing for the spaceship and cueing up Don Henley's "They're Not Coming"  .  No tornado ensued, so my husband and I just chalked it up to ignorance and wished we'd had the camera handy. Or some other witnesses.  Surely, someone else had seen what we'd seen in the sky.

 A couple of days ago, my pilot husband found something online that looked right and we discovered that we're not alone.  "National Geographic News" reported the newly named Asperatus with pictures that were similar, but not nearly large and dramatic enough to compare with what we'd seen.  A little more research has turned up several references and pictures, including these from "The Atlantic".  And Wikipedia reveals:

 "Undulatus asperatus (or alternately, asperatus) is a rare, newly recognized cloud formation, that was proposed in 2009 as the first cloud formation added since cirrus intortus in 1951 to the International Cloud Atlas of the World Meteorological Organization.^[1] The name translates approximately as roughened or agitated waves.^[2

 The Royal Meteorological Society of London has been studying the new formation since June, looking to discover how it forms and what weather patterns give rise to it.  They had thought the clouds were most usually seen over the plains states, but they've been spotted in NY State and in my East Coast backyard.  The internet gives the impression that the new formations have been seen and documented more frequently in recent months, although that may be due to the propagative nature of internet phenomena. Count me in.  On the other hand, from National Geo News, one expert suggests that technology births meteorological news:

Margaret LeMone, a cloud expert with the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, said that she has taken photos of asperatus clouds intermittently over the past 30 years.

It's likely that the cloud will turn out to be a new variety, LeMone said.

"Having a group of people enthusiastic about clouds can only help the field of meteorology," she added.

Asked how has such a striking cloud type could go unrecognized, Pretor-Pinney cites its rarity--and the proliferation and portability of digital cameras. "Technology has allowed us to have this new perspective on the sky."

LeMone and Pretor-Pinney make it sound like we've needed special cameras or equipment to view Undulatus Asperatus, but all I had to do was step out my back door and marvel.  It's a case of increased occurrence vs. improved documentation.  I think they sound a little proprietary about clouds, too; they, and Joni Mitchell.  I can understand, though, because, until I looked it up, I had the distinct feeling that those clouds had come for me, personally.  The novel personal experience of a  phenomenon tends to convince  a party of one, at least, that something tangible has changed, so I'm naturally and knowingly leaning toward the increased occurrence conclusion.  For the moment, it's a lot more fun.  Thrilling, in fact.

You'll remember the incredible cloud effects that Spielberg used in Close Encounters  ( click on the movie title for great short Youtube video with several cloud segments, especially at 2':30"), where the clouds roiled up out of nowhere and churned out friendly intergalactic transports.  That's exactly what the newly named Undulatus Asperatus looks like.  Imagine:  we now live in a world that  mimics Spielberg.  I don't know about you, but I'm not quite comfortable about having brand new things in the sky on my watch.  I have enough trouble with the deceptive blink of  visible satellites traversing my view of beloved Orion.  I'm riveted, but I'm nervous with it, too.

 Turns out, there is another unusual cloud formation that is named for that bosomy look I describe: lenticular mammatus clouds, as seen in the picture above...enough to make a really large litter happy.  The Brits seem more interested in unusual cloud formations than we Americans are, at least to judge by what pops up on Google; their Royal Society recognized Asperatus first and this pic of Mammatus is from the Daily Telegraph. I seem to remember that crop circles are still appearing  in England, too...bit more fanciful, those chaps.  Asperatus differs somewhat from Mammatus; the sky I saw looked more like the top picture on this post than like the one, here:  more like one giant bosom than like a whole harem.

 Are they related, the "new" clouds and global warming?  Keep your eyes open and your cameras handy.  Let me know if you've ever seen either Undulatus Asperatus or Mammatus.  And, if you have pictures, even better.  Send some to George Will, too, care of "Newsweek."