Hole-punch clouds over Melbourne -

Photos courtesy of National Weather Service, Melbourne. Photographers: Matt Bragaw, Peter Blottman. (See story below)

Ice crystals and the influence of the jet stream helped produce this dramatic scene on Thursday, Nov. 9 over the National Weather Service office in Melbourne. Meteorologists call this formation "hole-punch" clouds.

Ice crystals, jet stream winds combine for rare display

By David Larimer
FLORIDA TODAY weather columnist

A unusual cloud formation appeared in skies over the Space Coast on Thursday caused by ice crystals and enhanced by the jet stream.

There is no scientific term for the cloud display you see above. The National Weather Service calls the formation "hole-punch" clouds because of the oval-shaped opening.

The image was captured by meteorologists Matt Bragaw and Peter Blottman at the weather service office in Melbourne on Thursday morning.

The display is rare but has occurred in Melbourne skies in years past. In 1993, the weather service's Dennis Decker photographed a similar display. His dramatic photo was published in a national weather magazine.

Randy Lascody, a senior meteorologist at the weather service office, explained the conditions that led to the striking formation:

"The atmosphere on Thursday was very dry from about 5000 to 28,000 feet. There was a rather extensive deck of cirrocumulus (mixture of 'super cooled' water droplets and ice crystals) invading the sky associated with strong westerly jet stream winds.

"However, the 'hole-punch' features were aligned north/south. This suggests that there was some sort of 'wave' in the atmosphere that was causing rising/sinking air couplets.

"This would cause ice crystals in the descending portion of the wave to fall into the super cooled (liquid) cloud layer. When this occurs, the ice crystals grow (at the expense of the liquid droplets). Therefore, a hole opened in the deck of cirrocumulus.

"This process is similar to the principle used in cloud seeding to make cloud particles larger and produce precipitation. In this case, the precipitation aloft (meteorological term is 'virga') descended into the dry air below 28,000 feet and evaporated (actually, the proper term for this process is 'sublimated').

"The virga is evident in a few of the pictures descending from the center of the hole in the clouds. This resulted in a cone-shaped cloud high in the atmosphere that I'm sure a few people thought was a funnel cloud."

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Hole Punch Cloud #-2

Sonya from Rohnert Park, California (S3CHURCH@aol.com) sends us:
I was at my daughters school function today and took this picture of a cloud formation behind us. I took meteorology in college and have never seen anything like this before. I was going to e-mail it to my professor to see if he could explain it to me.

My husband seems to think that an object moved very quickly through the clouds and created a shockwave. You can see a contrail to the formation, the cone at the bottom follows the trajectory then disappears. There were other contrails in the area. At the time I didn't think anything of it. Seems like I should have taken more pictures! Meteor? Satellite? UFO?

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From the Coast to Coast Website (Artbell)

This photo (see full image below) was taken from my backyard between 10:00AM and 10:15AM 3/4/2003 with a Kodak Digital Camera. The circles appear to be in the direction of Nashville TN which is about 32 miles south west of my home in Gallatin, TN.

I sent them to a local televison station meteorologist. He said he had 2 theories. He said it could have been what the weather people call a thermal inversion, Which means warm air rising in a circular motion much like a tornado only in reverse.

He also said the AMS (American Meteorological Society) mentioned in the AMS report, there are experiments with rain prevention being used by the U S Air Force that have been known to cause this. He featured it on last night's weather report on the local Fox News channel.

--Wayne Carter

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Local resident Joel Knain said as he took pictures: "I immediately realized that I was seeing something unique."

Meteorological experts believe the hole formed when ice-crystals from a passing plane fell through the cloud, causing the water droplets in it to evaporate.

Experts say the process involved is related to that of cloud seeding, which is used to make rain over crop fields.

Stuck inside of Mobile

The unusual phenomenon was observed on 11 December last year.

"I ran inside to get my camera and shot-off 10-12 frames to capture the scene," Joel told BBC News Online.

"I would guess that we stood there for 10-15 minutes just staring in amazement."

Strictly speaking there is no scientific term for the apparition, and what exactly it is has been the subject of much meteorological speculation.

One hypothesis is that the hole is made by falling ice-crystals that could have come from the exhaust of a passing aircraft.

It is possible the air was at just the right temperature and with just the right moisture content so that the falling crystals could absorb water from the air and grow.

The moisture removed from the air could have increased the evaporation of the cloud's water droplets, which then disappeared to produce the dramatic hole.

The wispy clouds seen below the hole may be heavier ice-crystals that have fallen from the hole, evaporating (the correct term is subliming) before they reach the ground.

Image copyright Joel Knain

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