Lenticular Clouds on Cascades Volcanoes, Part II (still no alien landings noted)

Volcanoes are endlessly fascinating for so many reasons, not the least of which is the way they make their own weather. Mt. Shasta, at the south end of the Cascades Range is no exception, as it rises around 10,000 feet above the surrounding valleys. The view of Shasta this morning was much different than it was on Thursday! It's really nice to see even more snow coming this week.

The clouds on the flank make me think of pyroclastic ash flows...

The strange lenticular clouds often seen around the mountain's summit have given rise to all kinds of speculation about UFOs and that kind of thing. The reason for the cloud phenomena, as mentioned yesterday, is the condensation that occurs as humid air is pushed over the summit by prevailing winds. As the air mass sinks on the leeward side it evaporates again. A storm system was moving through the area on the far side of the peak.

Some much more nicely developed lenticular clouds were visible just left of the peak (in the picture above), and over the one of the older shield volcanoes off to the east of the Shasta Valley. No wonder these things get mistaken for flying saucers (I've also heard it said that, yes of course those are lenticular clouds, not UFOs. They just give cover to the UFOs that are landing up there!)

Mt. Shasta never fails to be an interesting sight, no matter the season or hour. One of the most fascinating views I've ever had was one I couldn't catch on camera, but it stole my breath away. We drove up through Redding one night in a rainstorm that turned to snow as we approached the mountain. We were worried about reaching our destination at the late hour in the drifting snow. When we reached the far side of the mountain near Weed, the clouds parted and Shasta appeared, completely clear, and bathed in the light of a full moon. Unforgettable, and downright mystical.

Lenticular Clouds and Cascades Volcanoes (no UFOs today...)

We have Mrs. Geotripper to thank for today's picture. We've been on the road in Oregon and as we came over the hill into Medford at sunset, we were greeted with the extraordinary sight of a lenticular cloud settling over Mt. McLoughlin in the southern Cascades Range. I have to give Mrs. Geotripper some credit for managing several nice shots through the windshield of a car speeding along Interstate 5.

Mt. McLoughlin is 9,495 feet (2894 meters) in elevation and can best be described as a composite cone, as it is in part a basaltic shield with a prominent summit cinder cone and andesite flows. It has not erupted in the last 25,000 years and thus appears to be low on the list of recognized hazardous volcanoes. On clear days from some angles McLoughlin is a deceptively symmetrical cone. The summit has been deeply carved by glaciation.

Lenticular clouds will form when moist air is pushed over obstructions (such as, say, volcanoes) and the temperature reaches the dew point, forcing the water vapor to condense into clouds. As the air stream drops on the leeward side, the water droplets in the cloud evaporate again, forming the lens-like shape. The clouds have such a distinctive and unusual shape that they are seen as unnatural features (i.e. UFOs).

Aliens, Area 51, and UFOs!

More distractions from my current road trip...

We crossed a very lonely stretch of highway in Nevada, Highway 6, which traverses the empty barren lands between Tonopah and Ely. It runs a bit north of Area 51, Rachel, and the Alien Highway, but we caught our own alien adventure after a few hours of white line fever. It started with the dust clouds in the far distance. What force could possibly be lifting that dust so high in the air? It just didn't look...normal.

And then, we saw it. It was hard to photograph, being so far away, but we worked with the zoom to get the most plausible view...it was the alien mothership! It was either making the dust cloud as it rose, or it was producing the dust cloud to hide itself, but we were too observant for that!

Now, I know there are skeptics out there who will insist on this myth of dust storms and mirages, but really, who are you gonna believe? A hallucinating tired driver, or those egghead scientists who think they know everything? It's clearly easier to believe in aliens, isn't it?

The horses knew...

*Disclaimer: I just know someone is going to read this and take it seriously. Don't. I'm just having some fun. The pictures are courtesy of Mrs. Geotripper.