This Strange Phenomenon In Nebraska Is Too Cool For Words

Have you ever looked up at the sky to see clouds that look like bubble wrap, or maybe like water balloons about to burst? They’re known as mammatus clouds, and this is the time of year you’re most likely to see them.

imgur/Camille Seaman

These impressive bulbous clouds usually show up just before a severe thunderstorm or even a tornado. The rounded shapes you see are actually pouches hanging beneath clouds; the pouches themselves are called mammatus.

flickr/Michael Fajardo

The mammatus can take on a variety of appearances. The most fun to look at, we think, is the fat rounded shape. But they can also look like ragged or smooth lobes stretched across the sky.

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flickr/sgtgary

Mammatus can extend down from the bottom of several types of clouds, but you'll most often see them under cumulonimbus clouds.

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flickr/sgtgary

When you look up and see this type of cloud formation overhead, you know you're in for an interesting storm - and soon. The formations are made mostly of ice and can keep their puffy appearance for up to a few hours.

flickr/sgtgary

These rather ominous-looking clouds don't actually bring on severe weather. They just appear around the time of a good storm.

As with a lot of natural phenomena, scientists aren’t entirely sure why or how the mammatus form. The formations are relatively rare and, since they aren’t dangerous, haven’t been studied very extensively.

Mammatus clouds appear all over the world, not just in Nebraska. But like anything else, we think they’re way better in Nebraska. Have you ever captured photos of this interesting natural phenomenon? If so, we would love to see them in the comments section!