Ci intortus

Formation of zigzag and twisted cirrus clouds at an altitude of 9.4km (300mb height) as indicated by the weather sounding (second thumbnail). In this case, it seems that the clouds had formed due to the tail-end of an upper-level trough (third thumbnail) over Libya where thunderstorm cloud were observed over that area through satellite imagery. The cloud`s temperature was -43C with an 87% humidity level and much drier air at 200mb height. Hence it was definitely composed of ice crystals. The cloud took that shape because of jet stream winds (fourth thumbnail) blowing the cloud`s ice crystals haphazardly (here and there) without any arrangement. The first thumbnail shows cumulus mediocris clouds that formed on the same day due to air thermals rising from the slight heating of the ground under anticyclonic (high-pressure) weather conditions and are unrelated to these high-level clouds that formed late afternoon (at 16:30 CET). Sometimes, these high-level clouds harbinger bad weather but the weather remained stable on the following days as these clouds only covered half of the sky.

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