Weird sky yesterday in the PNW

[Cheechako]

Strange sky formation here.

[Mike OReilly]

Da heck??? Any idea what this is?

[Smokeys Kitchen]

Was this up near Anacortes? We are in Kingston and did not see anything like this

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by Smokeys Kitchen

Was this up near Anacortes? We are in Kingston and did not see anything like this

Yes, Skagit Valley. From west near Anacortes and a shot from east of Mt Vernon. The gray shot is from up North in Lynden.
Was on the news last night, they had a name for it but it evades me now.
The last shot was right over my house.

[KTP]

That is a really common phenomenon when an alien ship is about to land.

[rbk]

It’s called a fall streak hole or hole punch cloud.

[storyinframes]

if these pics are not photoshops from social media then I would admit that this indeed looks very freaky to me

[vw1961]

I saw something similar close to an airport and suppose its made by the vortexes of a landing airplane going through the strait of clouds. it was not so big though...

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by rbk

It’s called a fall streak hole or hole punch cloud.

The Weather Underground (folks who ought to know) also identifies the clouds as "fallstreak hole clouds" (other names include: "punch hole cloud," "skypunch," and the straight-forward "cloud hole"); but I thought they looked like noctilucent* or lenticular clouds.
➥ https://www.wunderground.com/weather...allstreak-hole

Noctilucent clouds occur around 50 miles up in the earth's mesosphere – basically on the edge of space. These clouds are made up of very tiny ice crystal – 100 nanometers or smaller. Our usual high clouds may reach up to four to five miles.

[rsn48]

GordMay and rbk when the answer of the day award. In today's Times Colonist newspaper (Victoria BC), there was an article on the front page about this very phenomena, it agrees with GordMay's short dissertation.

[GordMay]

I was right (The Weather Underground are folks who ought to know), but it also appears that I was wrong, they’re not Noctilucent clouds (or Polar Mesospheric Clouds, PMCs)
➥ https://projectpossum.org/research/n...lucent-clouds/
➥ https://www.atoptics.co.uk/highsky/nlc2.htm

[a64pilot]

Lenticular usually form over a mountain and often in clear sky, if memory serves, you avoid them in an airplane, bumpy ride.

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Lenticular usually form over a mountain and often in clear sky, if memory serves, you avoid them in an airplane, bumpy ride.

Yes, they function as a warning of unstable air, which also can affect sailboats. But that hole punch cloud that has the mare's tails in it, that's really neat!

Wikipedia has a fairly straightforward, simple explanation of how the fall streak hole forms.

Ann

[belizesailor]

Indeed a very unusual formation...looks like a good signal to go tie up somewhere snug!

Lenticulars by contrast tend for form in relatively clear skies over mountains.

Pic of lenticulars near Mt Everest Base Camp:

[NCWDave]

Weirdest lenticular I have ever seen, if that is the correct id. Lenticulars signal good useable lift or updraft. Glider monkeys love em. I think.....um....Klingon Mothership.