Super Hurricane Rick, That Russian UFO Cloud
I believe that the "Russia UFO Cloud" (video) is a known cloud formation but it could have been caused by the Russian government's cloud seeding experimentation. A number of people have asked me about this over the past couple of weeks, and even though I tweeted it on October 8th, obviously some of you aren't following me on Twitter or reading "J's Breaking Weather News" at right. :)
I think it is a "hole-punch cloud" (with the sun illuminating it from a perfect angle) -- also known as a "fallstreak hole" something I have I have talked about before (click for a picture of hole punch clouds, seen from above and below). If that picture doesn't convince you a simple Google search for hole punch cloud will reveal samples even more similar to the video.
On October 12th, Meteorology News Blog wrote an article agreeing with this theory. Although the cause of these clouds is unknown, presumably they could form from cloud seeding planes, and ironically, MSNBC recently said that Moscow plans to reduce snowfall by 1/5 this winter by continuing their wide cloud seeding program.
UPDATE: The CIMSS blog has also added a satellite pick of Rick at peak intensity, as has NASA. Good stuff!
In other news, Super Hurricane Rick in the Eastern Pacific had winds of 180 mph yesterday, making it the strongest storm there since Hurricane Linda in 1997, and the second strongest storm since modern records began in 1966 (AP). Like Hurricane Linda, Rick is threatening Socorro Island where there is not much more than a weather station and I'll let you know Monday if there were any interesting observations from it. Here are some great satellite shots of Rick yesterday:
ENLARGE | by NAVY Tropical
ENLARGE | by NAVY Tropical
| by AccuWeather.com MapSpace™ (PREMIUM | PRO)
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