Stratocumulus over the Smokies, is it just weather or something else?

So I was up in Gatlinburg last week doing some hiking, and around 4pm these massive banks of stratocumulus rolled in over the ridges. They looked almost like waves, super defined, not your usual scattered puffs. My buddy swore it was just the mountains bumping the air, but I kept thinking it looked, I dunno, more organized than that. I got a few shots where the layers were perfectly lined up for miles. Anyone else see this kind of thing in the Appalachians and think it's just standard orography, or is there something about the valley heat that makes it weirder than it gets credit for? Curious how you all read these formations.

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ray6481mo ago

You’re basically describing the textbook mountain wave setup. Cold air aloft, stable layer, and ridges acting like a rock in a stream. Seen it plenty in the Smokies, the layers just get squeezed and stretched till they look like something out of a sci-fi movie. You’re not crazy, it’s just the air doing its thing.

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