Asperitas clouds sighted in western Pennsylvania
There was a flurry of photos of Asperitas clouds today on the Pennsylvania Weather Watchers group on Facebook. Asperitas clouds are new, at least as far as their official recognition, which I talk about in this AccuWeather story.
Asperitus clouds in Mercer County, PA 4/23
The clouds in some cases were accompanied by virga (precipitation which is falling but not reaching the ground) which is not a surprise, since they essentially represent the edge of the precipitation.
The photos above were taken in Mercer County by Donald Martin; below by Laura Kosht at Moraine State Park, PA, and below that, New Castle, PA by Renee Krasinski.
They occurred, as they often do, on the edge of a group of storms where dry air meets moist air, and they were sighted in and around Mercer County, north of Pittsburgh (encircled on the radar/satellite map below).
These shots were taken from the WeatherSTEM cameras in Pittsburgh:
The animation below shows a time-lapse of the Asperitas clouds on the Pittsburgh camera:
By the time the clouds reached State College this afternoon, they weren't nearly as impressive, but still fun to watch as these WeatherSTEM camera timelapses show:
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