A rare horseshoe cloud was spotted over Battle Mountain, Nevada on Friday and folks on Twitter are having a hard time believing our extraterrestrial friends had nothing to do with it.
The National Weather Service shared photos of the phenomenon, captured by “eagle-eye” Christy Grimes. The tweet said the horseshoe cloud formation is one of the rarest cloud formations ever.
Also called mustache clouds, horseshoe clouds form when there is a lot of vorticity (a measure of rotation) in the air, according to Weather Scapes. The clouds form when a small cumulus updraft interacts with the surrounding air and forms a dipole vortex. They’re most common during supercell storms, when winds rush in to feed the storm. Conditions are rarely perfect for this kind of cloud formation—and when they do form, it’s usually short-lived.
(1/2) Hi Stephanie here's the explanation on how these clouds are formed. As the updraft pushes flattish cumulus clouds up & a horizontal vortex develops from differential updraft speeds… https://t.co/rLTZLG5dYR
— NWS Elko (@NWSElko) March 9, 2018
(2/2) As the vortex climbs, it's caught in the faster horizontal winds aloft,& the middle part of the vortex catches the faster speeds with the ends being slower. Hope this helps! https://t.co/rLTZLG5dYR
— NWS Elko (@NWSElko) March 9, 2018
Q: What is even happening?!
— Mika McKinnon (@mikamckinnon) March 9, 2018
A: Horseshoe clouds are partially-visible vortices. An updraft hit a sheer layer, getting knocked into a spin & flattened.
Oversimplifucation: It's a very weak & sideways cousin of a waterspout or tornado, a quickly-dissipating shred of cloud. pic.twitter.com/S9pWeqrc2y
Still, people don’t see these types of clouds very often. So, obviously, the internet had to jump at the chance to meme this cloud.
https://twitter.com/semisponge/status/972410283808276480
Pretty sure that’s a floating mustache https://t.co/5P4bHXc5Av
— Bex (@ShmeckaBeks) March 10, 2018
https://twitter.com/englishinvader/status/972185796995436549
Even the clouds have septum piercings, sweet https://t.co/IR3OVF6rWp
— jel.b🚮 (@JayKneeDeep) March 10, 2018
Hulk stopped in Nevada on his way to Clearwater https://t.co/Xztu2KvsOh
— phixated (@phixated) March 10, 2018
🎶 why d’you have to go and make clouds so complicated 🎶 https://t.co/BnuueqGopg
— Peter Gao (@PlanetaryGao) March 10, 2018
While some chose to make jokes about the shape of the cloud, others put on their thinking caps and questioned if the cloud really appeared because of weather, or if aliens were actually behind the anomaly.
https://twitter.com/darth/status/972151029360836609
https://twitter.com/Julianmunoz/status/972345403499827200
https://twitter.com/MichaelMufasa/status/972425077269528576
1. This is a fucking spaceship. 2. Anytime this happens experts say its 'rare'.
— Randolph Colon Jr (@RCJR00) March 10, 2018
3. ALIENS
“A rare horseshoe cloud is captured on camera”https://t.co/0teQhlBM7l
Horseshoe cloud my arse, I know aliens when I see them. If you'll excuse me I'll be in my safety bunker. https://t.co/rtyq54Cvaj
— Owen (@Owendaspoon) March 10, 2018
Aliens or not, horseshoes have been historically seen as symbols of good luck. Sounds like good news for the state of Nevada.