Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Lenticular Clouds

I was wondering if anyone has any photos they would like to share of lenticular clouds over Mt. Whitney.

Hiiker

The correct spelling is lenticular, the "len" from latin, meaning lens shaped.

As a glider pilot, I can tell you these clouds have great significance for those that fly, esp in the Owens Valley. You might get good links to photos by doing a search in google, using the images link.

Ooops, I don't claim to be the worlds best speller. (The spelling has been corrected) Thanks for the heads up and info on the clouds. I'm very familiar with what type of clouds they are. I sort of have a hobby of photographing different cloud shapes, especially lenticular clouds. I can see where this type of cloud formation would be of interest to a glider pilot.

BTW, I did do a search on the subject using google and came up with a big fat zero for Mt. Whitney. I ran across many photos of lenticular clouds over other mtns but not Whitney. I'm just wondering if none ever form over Whitney for some reason? I'm a little surprised so far no one has responded to my post, other than you about seeing them or photographing them over Whitney.

Thanks again and I'll continue to monitor this site/post for further info. Maybe if I would have spelled it right in the first place more people might know what I'm talking about.

Hiiker

not sure about Whitney, but Shasta is famous for them

Shasta and the other volcanos of the cascades that are solo (Rainier, Hood, Adams) and tower above the surrounding land on all sides, seen to get them most. The Sisters, a group of three volcanic peaks all about the same altitude and close together do not seem to get them. It may have something to do with uninterupted air flow / circulation. Saw a nice one when going up Rainier this summer.

You can occasionally see lenticular clouds on satellite imagery. They remain stationary over or just downwind of a mountain range. I saw lenticular clouds on Monday over western Montana.

A good satellite imagery Web site is www.rap.ucar.edu/weather/satellite. For a black & white infrared loop, click Infrared (B/W), Contiguous U.S., Loop-small.

In early June 2001 while in Yosemite NP I saw lenticular clouds. I saw them from Yosemite Valley looking east over the Sierra. I saw them again the following day from east of the park near Lee Vining. They were over the Sierra Nevada and White Mts.

I decided to do a google search on Lenticular clouds. The following is excerpted from the <A HREF="http://vortex.plymouth.edu/clouds.html">Plymouth State University Meteorolgy page.</A>
Lenticular clouds are lens-shaped clouds that can result from strong wind flow over rugged terrain. Sometimes they stack up like pancakes in multiple layers. The strong flow produces a distinct up and down wavelike pattern on the lee side of the mountain or large hill and the lenticular clouds tend to form at the peaks of these waves. They sometimes are very round and the edges are so well defined that they resemble flying saucers.

Here is a <A HREF="http://www.summitpost.com/mountains/photo_link.pl/photo_id/9005/mountain_id/3/object_id/3/type/mountain">cool lenticular on Mount Hood.</A>

<A HREF="http://www.summitpost.com/mountains/photo_link.pl?photo_id=11334&object_id=45&type=new#46023">Here</A> is a picture of a lenticular over Whitney, recently posted on summitpost.com

Keema,

Great photo, thanks for posting the link to it.

Hiiker

For those on this message board this evening who want to see lenticular clouds on satellite imagery, go to the Web site www.rap.ucar.edu/weather/satellite. When the page appears, click on Infrared (Color) or Infrared (B/W), then Loop-small, then Contiguous U.S. Notice how the cloud mass in western Alberta and northwestern Montana is moreless stationary. Some of these are altocumulus standing lenticularis.

For those familiar with METAR weather code (especially pilots or meteorologists), here is a statement from this afternoon at Calgary that confirms the lenticularis clouds; the ACSL in the remarks section stands for "altocumulus standing lenticularis."

METAR CYYC 122300Z 18005KT 40SM BKN140 BKN250 M01/M07 A3006 RMK AC2CI1 ACSL SW SLP228