Chatted with a storm chaser at a gas station and he told me lenticular clouds are way more dangerous than I thought

He said those smooth lens-shaped ones over mountains can hide violent turbulence that'll rip a small plane apart, so now I'm rethinking all those times I just thought they looked cool, has anyone else had a casual conversation completely change how you see a certain cloud?

2 comments

2 Comments

finleythomas3d ago

All that hidden danger in pretty clouds reminds me how the calmest looking situations in life often carry the most risk.

grant.margaret4d ago

You know what gets me thinking though, is if lenticular clouds hide that kind of violence, what about the pretty, innocent-looking ones? I used to think high, thin cirrus clouds were basically harmless, just some ice crystals way up there. But my cousin flies for a small cargo outfit and he says those can be a sign of a jet stream that'll hit you with 100+ mph winds out of nowhere, no warning. Makes you realize every cloud in the sky is basically screaming a warning, we just don't know how to read it.