PHOTOS: What is a Lenticular Cloud?

By Kevin Byrne, AccuWeather.com Staff Writer

May 30,2015; 9:17PM,EDT

 

 

On Monday, May 25, following a round of severe storms, residents in southeastern Texas photographed images of what appeared to be flying saucers invading the area.
Fortunately, the objects were nothing of an extraterrestrial nature, but simply lenticular clouds that popped up near Hearne, Texas.
Lenticular clouds have been regularly confused for UFOs throughout history due to the their smooth, round or oval lens-shaped structure. The clouds are not uncommon, but are most regularly found near mountainous areas and can appear singular or stacked like pancakes.
According to AccuWeather Meteorologist Jesse Ferrell, lenticular clouds are formed when air moves over mountains, cooling sufficiently for condensation to take place. Lenticular clouds are different from other clouds because they don't move, he said.
"They are continually reformed over the same location by new air rising up and over a mountain, condensing and producing the clouds," Ferrell said.
These clouds can also form over flat terrain due to shear winds created by a front, according to EarthSky.
Texas wasn't the only non-mountainous location that the clouds were photographed recently. The National Weather Service in Grand Rapids, Michigan, also captured an image of lenticular clouds forming southwest of the city on Friday.

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Lenticular clouds (center of frame) forming above convection/showers southwest of Grand Rapids. #wmiwx #miwx

1:03 PM - 29 May 2015

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Lenticular clouds appeared in Southeastern, Texas, after severe storms earlier swept through the area. (Photo/Facebook user Rosalinda Martinez)
UFO-shaped lenticular clouds appeared in the Hearne, Texas, sky on May 25. (Photo/Facebook user Krystel Ring)
Lenticular clouds in the province of Neuquén, Argentina in 2009. (AccuWeather Photo Gallery/el.kolo)
Lenticular clouds captured at sunset in central Pennsylvania in 2010. (AccuWeather Photo Gallery/Jesse Ferrell)
Multiple lenticular clouds formed over Mount Mitchell in North Carolina in March 1992. In this photo, the cloud appears to be sitting still, but the air continually forms the cloud as it flows over the mountain, according to Ferrell. (AccuWeather Photo Gallery/Jesse Ferrell)