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Saw a perfect example of mammatus clouds over the freeway yesterday
I was driving home from a job in Riverside and the sky just opened up with these crazy pouch-like clouds hanging down. I see people post pictures of any bumpy cloud and call it mammatus, but that's not quite right. The real thing has a very specific look, like a bunch of smooth, rounded sacks all in a row, not just random lumps. I pulled over to get a picture because the light was hitting them just right, turning them pink and gray. I learned about them from a cloud guide book my wife got me, and it said they often form under the anvil of a big thunderstorm. Sure enough, you could see the storm cell way off in the distance. It's a small thing, but getting the name right feels good, you know? Has anyone else seen a really clear case of mammatus lately?
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riley555mo ago
Honestly, that description is spot on about the smooth sacks. I saw some last month after a storm passed through the valley. The thing a lot of people miss is that mammatus clouds are on the underside of the cloud deck. They're sinking air pockets, not rising bumps like other clouds. So if the pouches are on top of a cloud layer, it's probably something else, like castellanus. Your book had it right about them being under the storm anvil.
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ivanl185mo ago
That sinking air fact would have saved me from a lot of wrong guesses. I spent years calling any lumpy cloud "mammatus" like some kind of overconfident weatherman. My old method was basically just pointing and saying "look, sad clouds.
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evan_harris145mo ago
Oh wow, that sinking air detail is key. I always just looked for the pouch shape and got it wrong half the time. Makes total sense now.
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