Cold air creates mesmerizing ‘cloud roads’ around Florida
A breathtaking cloud pattern forms over Florida’s shores as temperatures drop across the eastern US
Mesmerizing “cloud roads” form in South America
As Arctic air descended upon sunny Florida this past weekend, it created a mesmerizing view In a satellite video: Parallel lines of clouds, colloquially called “cloud streets”, flow from land over the ocean.
Cloud streets – or horizontal convective rolls, as scientists call them – form when cold, dry air flows over warm surface waters – in this case, the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic waters near Florida.
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That cold air gets heated while moving over the warm surface of the ocean and then rises up. That rising air cools, and the water vapor condenses. Eventually, the air collides with a layer of warm air above that acts like a lid and causes the rising air to roll – “forming a cylinder parallel to the rotating air,” According to NASA’s 2019 description of the incident. That air, now cooled and stripped of its moisture, then returns to the surface at the edges of the rolling clouds. There, the air remains clear, creating the long, parallel lines seen in the new video.
It takes time for the cold air mass to pick up moisture from the water below, hence the difference between the shoreline and when the roll begins. And cloudy roads generally follow the direction of the wind.
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