Mesoscale Convective System Causes Asperatus Clouds

UPDATE 6/21: Another shot of Asperatus clouds on the edge of an MCS (satellite & radar) this morning in Indianapolis.

UPDATE 6/16: Another excellent photo of Asperatus has surfaced from the June 8th MCS in Branson, Missouri (where Cory took the timelapse below).

UPDATE 6/11: Here's one more picture from Ohio. Obviously a different thunderstorm system but part of this "outbreak." All of these clouds preceded major flooding events in Arkansas, Scranton and Oklahoma City. Probably just a coincidence but interesting.

UPDATE 6/9: Last night's MCS has also brought Asperatus on its edge... this time Jan (who saw only an arcus cloud yesterday, see below) was in the right position for Asperatus, taking this impressive set of photos at her home in Claremore, Oklahoma. They were also spotted at 6 AM in Mount Vernon, Illinois after a small thunderstorm passed through (radar).

UPDATE: Additional photos have surfaced on Facebook from Arkansas and Missouri. The latter link shows very impressive detail of the clouds and were taken by AccuWeather.com Facebook Cody Hudson in Branson, Missouri, who also took this short timelapse video showing how quickly the clouds reform themselves into new shapes:

Fan Dawn B. also captured more photos and a video.

ORIGINAL REPORT:

The MCS (Mesoscale Convective System) currently moving through Oklahoma caused some wonderful Asperatus Clouds on its eastern edge (read more about these strange clouds in this blog entry I wrote last year: Asperatus Clouds - A New Cloud Type?). Scientists disagree on what exactly causes these clouds (see WikiPedia entry), but based on what I've seen of Asperatus here in Pennsylvania, they seem to happen when very moist air is trying to invade very dry air -- something that would be most likely to happen at the edge of an MCS. Here is one from AccuWeather.com Facebook Fan Laura J:

Note the extremely complex patterns. Here's another photo by Buddy S. - here you see completely different patterns from just a few miles away. Asperatus give form to the waves and eddies of humidity boundaries in the atmosphere that we normally can't see.

Here's the radar map from the time the photos were taken (Laura was just to the southwest of Buddy):

Further near the center of the approaching gust front from the line of storms, a more classic Arcus cloud was viewed by AccuWeather.com Facebook Fan Jan from Oklahoma City:

This was a little earlier in the morning (I'm guessing the time here):

Here are some other high-res images showing the radar, 2-hour lightning, and satellite shots from this MCS overnight:

The MCS over the heart of the country also had a sister MCS over New Mexico.

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