Farallon Islands Mirage Photo

UPDATE: You can read more abour Mirages on WikiPedia (ironically they use the Farallon Islands to show examples of each type of mirage). Every once in a while, there is a photo uploaded to the AccuWeather.com Photo Gallery which is so rare and unusual, that it's worth an entire blog entry. This morning, mikey_448 uploaded this photo:

POSSIBLE WINTER STORM NEXT WEEK! SEE J'S BREAKING NEWS" AT RIGHT

Mirage of the Farallon Islands. Taken from Pacifica California. The islands are approximately 27 miles out and are not usually visible from the location the photo was taken. Mirage caused by warmer air over cooler ocean air.

Here's a zoom of the photo (I clicked on "View All Sizes" and "Original" then I cropped it out in Photoshop).

This is an incredible catch, and I have to admit if I saw this, I wouldn't know what it is. Here's a Google Map of the Farallon Islands, in comparison to Pacifica.

This reminds me that there was a really interesting article in WeatherWise magazine earlier this year (you can read the abstract here). It basically proved, with science and mathematics, why the "Marfa Mystery Lights" in Texas are optical mirages, and are, in fact, a myth.