I suppose if I truly want to take the weekend off, I’ll have to ditch my smartphone. These photos from the Facebook page of the Panhandle Helicopter Service in Panama City Beach, Florida, have been making the rounds today, erroneously labeled by ABC, MSNBC, and other news outlets as a “tsunami cloud”. Hence my humorous headline. Here’s the pictures in a clickable gallery:
The explanation for this phenomenon is very simple.
Nearly saturated (at almost the dew point) air from a sea breeze is being lifted (Orographic lifting) as it meets the coast and the buildings. The slight cooling from the lifting cools the air to the dew point and clouds form.
A similar phenomenon can be seen on some ocean islands.
Anthony: doh.
I had my coffee, and some brain cells are firing again. A pressure drop causes a slight cooling as the gas expands…..
“tsunami cloud” dumb name for a great natural effect typical of a scaremonger press !
@Bernd Felsche
“…But does it really hold for an island-like feature when it may be “easier” for the air to move around the obstruction, than over it? (After Le Chatelier’s principle)
(Sticking my head out, displaying how little I know.)…”
In technical terms I know even less, though I often ‘slope-soar’ my models on such a wind. In my experience air finds it slightly easier to go over an obstacle than to go round it – I always thought that was because the air above an obstacle is higher, so at a slightly lower pressure than the air at the sides. Thus it’s ‘easier to push out of the way’….
Not only does the slight temperature change bring the air to dew point, but the air speed has an important role too. The entire air front facing these buildings has to go through limited openings (above buildings). As a result, the air flow speed increase.
Pressure decrease when speed increase. And with pressure decreasing you reach the dew point.
Same thing happens on top of airplane wings (in this case there is no elevation change, only effect of air acceleration bringing down pressure):
There is nothing ‘erroneus’ about calling them tsunami clouds – anybody can see that they go over the building / cost just like a tsunami wave would. Nowhere does it suggest it is caused by a tsunami.
Just like the Levanter Cloud in Gibraltar: only this one happens almost every week year round, whenever the Levanter Wind blows in the Straits.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gibraltar_Levante_Cloud_7.jpg
FD
Often seen over Ailsa Craig in the Forth of Clyde.
Amazing. Wonder if the same thing happens in winter? For instance, do the tall buildings in downtown Buffalo get more lake-effect snow than nearby small towns?
I have been up Scottish mountains where the transition as occurred; visibility changes from miles to yards in less than a minute.
I have often used this phenomena when navigating around the pacific islands in the days before everyone had access to sat nav gear. If you have an isolated island you start to look for a stationary cloud. All the clouds will be drifting down wind, except the one that sits on the high point of the island.
They often have something of an anvil shape at the top of the cloud drifts down wind a little, before dissipating.
If the island has a coral lagoon you can also see the reflection of the turquoise water in the cloud, where the others will be white.
Saw that all the time on the Oregon coast. Called it “Sea Smoke”.Warm air inland cool water and
a slight breeze Been on top of Humbug Mountain in such condtions…
The press has no shame or knowlege…
Gary Hladik – are you sure your comment is humor? 🙁
Wonderful, I now have an alternative for “a head in the sand”. A nice pictorial representation (Luytla-Duymun) of what a view of the world would be with your “head in the clouds”- foggy.
I grew up in Panama City, my father was stationed at Tyndall AFB. We would have never seen this as there was nothing tall enough on the beach to cause any updrafts. When I went back to the panhandle a couple of years ago I found out that you could walk from PC to Ft. Walton without ever stepping off of some hi rise condos property, gone was the open beach of the past. No wonder hurricane damage is up, it has nothing to do with the strength of the storms.
“Here’s the pictures ”
Anthony, I thought you disliked illiteracy? I’m not trying to pick on you, just trying to point out common grammatical mistakes so your blog is a better read. Please take this as constructive criticism, not as an attack.
/// Satire ///
I’m waiting for some environmental group to say the “Fogageddon” is more proof of AGW! 😉
Cool pics and thank you very much but …..
Next time you take a weekend off leave that electronic leash at home or turned off! I could have waited until Monday.
Ian H says:
February 11, 2012 at 8:34 pm
Offshore wind turbines do it too
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-01/wind-turbines-leave-clouds-and-energy-inefficiency-their-wake
A very good picture of Windfarms affecting climate they are lifting the air from the surface and also possibly causing Venturi cooling around their blades resulting in bands of stratocumulus which spread and form a layer of stratocu behind the windfarm. This will cool the surface in the daytime and reduce the cooling at night. I wonder if there are similar pictures of windfarm caused clouds for on-shore sites? This could cause issues with crops downwind of the windfarms.
If they were called Dew Point clouds, would that be too obvious?
Fabulous.
Tsunami clouds
Bring the warmist shrouds:
When the weather’s strange
Heralds Climate Change,
Your time is coming to an end.
Give it up, Al, Jim and Joe
Your tsunami clouds
Bring a furrow to our brows.
Each day, somewhere
You see a cloud to give us a scare
Give it up, Al, Jim and Joe:
We’re seen through your tsunami clouds
We all know that you’re only in it for the dough,
Never mind the small cap-clouds on the hotel blocks — the most exciting thing is the upper clouds just inland. With a decent glider, you could soar that sea-breeze front for hundreds of kilometers…
.
Ian W says:
February 12, 2012 at 9:53 am
“daytime and reduce the cooling at night. I wonder if there are similar pictures of windfarm caused clouds for on-shore sites? This could cause issues with crops downwind of the windfarms.”
It is known that they cause more turbulence near the ground in their wake, leading to higher evaporation.
Penetrating the IPCC propaganda fog.
Fritz Vahrenholt and Sebastian Luning have a new website for visitors who are conversant in German language.
———————————————————-
Die Kalte Sonne
Warum die Klimakatastrophe nicht stattfindet
http://www.kaltesonne.de/
I saw the pics on a MSNBC site first. Almost all of the comments there were complaining about the high-rises spoiling the beach — no surprise there….