Every now and then the strange Mammatus clouds appear.
The rare weather phenomenon was last seen in China.
So far, meteorologists have been united about their origins.
Hebei - The weather shows once again what it can do: A breathtaking natural phenomenon was recently seen in the Chinese province of Hebei.
As video recordings show, the so-called mammatus clouds make it look like giant cotton balls are floating in the sky.
For scientists, too, clouds are a puzzling phenomenon.
Mammatus fascinate many people with their unusual appearance.
There are, however, various theories about their formation.
According to
wetter.de
, the mammatus clouds - also known as bag clouds - often arise when cold fronts pass through, when showers and thunderstorms occur.
Mostly you can see them on the back of thunderstorms.
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Rare weather phenomenon: Mammatus clouds hover over China
© Liu Xu / Imago
As the
German Weather Service (DWD)
explains, what is needed above all is unstable layers, such as high differences in temperature, humidity or wind, in order for the bag clouds to arise.
Turbulence in the vicinity of the thundercloud is also essential for the formation of the cloud formation.
According to the
DWD,
Mammatus can also be found in contrails or ash clouds from volcanic eruptions.
Rare phenomenon: bag clouds also in Germany
In Germany, too, it sometimes happens that citizens see this rare phenomenon.
In March 2021, for example, storm “Klaus” in Berlin caused the rare weather formation.
Although the weather event does not occur very rarely, it has not yet been researched very much.
According to the
DWD, this
is mainly due to its short life and small size: Mammatus can usually not be seen for longer than ten minutes and do not spread further than a kilometer.
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Storm low "Klaus" brought Mammatus clouds to Berlin.
© Oliver Mann / Imago
The term "Mammatus" comes from the Latin word "mama" and translated means breast or breast-like, according to the
DWD.
This means the shape of the clouds, which is often reminiscent of breasts.
As the DWD explains, Mammatus are characterized by the fact that they hang low and are arched downwards.
Even if the bag clouds usually only appear after strong thunderstorms, they can create a mystical moment after the bad weather.
List of rubric lists: © Liu Xu / Imago
