“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.”- Rabindranath Tagore

B E A U T I F U L  B U T  I N T I M I D A T I N G

This week’s Wednesday Challenge on partner Susan and my alternate site was  the word CLOUDS.

A number of years ago while driving back home to Edmonton through the Canadian Rocky Mountains in British Columbia I was about 100 kilometers west of Banff Alberta when I looked up and noticed this intimidating type of cloud formation stretching out on the route before me.

I had never see such a cloud formation and wondered if the clouds were a precursor to a free fall rain storm or a much worse dumping of pent up hail stones waiting for something to trigger a reaction.

According to Wikipedia “mammatus” (also called mamma^[1] or mammato cumulus, meaning “mammary cloud”) is a cellular pattern of pouches hanging underneath the base of a cloud, typically a cumulonimbus raincloud, although they may be attached to other classes of parent clouds. The name mammatus is derived from the Latin “mamma “(meaning “udder” or “breast“).

The distinct “lumpy” undersides are formed by cold air sinking down to form the pockets contrary to the puffs of clouds rising through the convection of warm air.

Mammatus are most often associated with anvil clouds and also severe thunderstorms.

Needless to say I drove rather quickly through this section of road praying all the while that nothing untoward would befall me on my way home.

Weekly Prompts Wednesday Challenge -Clouds.