#asperitas

[thewandererh]

ASPERITAS!!!!!!!!

Today the sky looked like straight from a van gogh painting

[bluecapsicum]

[cleverreports]

We report: we stayed up late talking with our expert, last night. It is now morning, a few paces before sunrise, and we got woken up by the wood shutters slamming against the wall in the wind. The sky looks like mercury, slicks of liquid clouds laid out from east to west.

[analog-television]

I figured I should share my asperitas pics (which I took yesterday). They're a very rare type of cloud, and their name translates to "roughness". They likely formed here due to the approaching cold front carrying a storm with it - and October thunderstorms are quite a rare occurrence in my area. That being said the sky looked pretty unstable in the day before too, clouds wise anyway. Due to their rarity folks don't know a lot about them - and they're actually the newest described type of cloud! I'm a bit confused on my dates now... but from what I unearthed these clouds were only proposed around 2009 and added to the international cloud atlas in 2017.

[tornadoquest]

[silvereyedowl]

[source]

Asperatus Clouds Over New Zealand

Credits: Witta Priester

[zegalba]

Undulatus Asperitas clouds seen over New Hampshire (2023)

[mizelaneus]

2017

[scoutingthetrooper]

check out these wicked awesome rare asperitas clouds that formed yesterday before a storm

(x)

[barometric]

4/19/23 asperitas clouds in Caledonia, IL

[bufomancer]

Asperita, the most pathetic little beastie in my house (probably)

[bluecapsicum]

i love reports from unknown places especially reading the tags to learn about the clouds youve drawn =)

would you happen to know what kind of clouds this is? my friend saw them today

[Image ID: A picture of a cloudy, light grey sky. The shape of the clouds is wave-like, a bit like the surface of a choppy sea seen from underneath.]

Hello!

I'm so glad you've been enjoying the reports! I love that you've been reading the tags too hehe.

You've brought me one of my favourite supplementary features!

I want to say the genus is altocumulus, but I find it a bit more difficult to differentiate it with stratocumulus in pictures. The species is stratiformis as it's a sheet of clouds, and the variety is opacus, since it's thick enough to block out the sun. The asperitas supplementary feature is what makes these clouds so exciting! The wave-like pattern is very distinctive. It's not the most common type of clouds, you'll catch it most often when atmospheric conditions are unstable (you know, storm conditions). There's also a hypothesis that relief on the ground could contribute to their formation, due to gravity waves, but I don't know enough about that to really talk about it.

It's also a recent addition to the International Cloud Atlas! It was proposed as "undulatus asperatus" in 2009 by Gavin Pretor-Pinney (founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society), then officially added as the supplementary feature "asperitas" in 2017. It was one of only 12 revisions to the International Cloud Atlas for that edition (look out for a "supercilium" addition in the next edition, I'm rooting for it).

Because of this, you'll often see articles say that this type of cloud "appeared" in 2017, like nobody had ever seen one before then, which is obviously wrong.

Anyway, yeah, I love these so much, thank you so much for showing me this picture! If you look up "asperitas clouds", you'll get to see incredibly dramatic pictures and videos of this feature, it's so eerie and beautiful. I get so excited when I see them in the wild.

[cleverreports]

We report: we have got some familiarity with asperitas at this point in time. We even know to look out for them in certain atmospheric conditions. Today, the air is thick and heavy, but there is no storm system on the approach. The clouds consider the concept of abstraction.

[mer-se]

caught some asperitas clouds. made me happy

[drag00ni]

Brimmed cap and pointed cap

[metanoein]

Undulatus Asperitas clouds seen over Rio de Janeiro - Brasil (2023)