In the meantime – happening in the Stilbaai area:
27 January 2022: An amazing cloud formation as captured by local resident, Manfred Vietze.
This formation is apparently called Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds that are formed when two winds are blowing at different speeds.
According to a comment on his post, it is known as a Kelvin-Helmholtz instability or wave that are sometimes called billow clouds. It is now officially known as Fluctus by the WMO, as the original name was too difficult to pronounce, let alone remember!!
It is formed in exactly the same way that waves break on a beach. The upper air mass moves quicker than the base of the cloud, creating the breaking wave look.
Just as a water mass slows down at the base as it nears the shore and the top of the water mass continues on without slowing, and pulls up into a breaking wave.
January 2022 – Image by Manfred Vietze
