Mammatus Clouds

This morning, I got up early to go to a yard sale. This isn’t just any yard sale though, it’s the one that made me famous! {smirk} As I was driving there, I kept noticing the amazing cloud formations, a type that I’d never seen before.Now, I am a dedicated cloud-watcher, and love keeping an eye on the weather and the sky. I’ve sailed for years, and even took a class in college called “Wind & Weather for the Serious Yachtsman”, a bit of a sexist title, I’ll agree, but I learned loads. These clouds are called Mammatus clouds, because they look like mammary glands, or breasts. The clouds look like pouches which are hanging under cumulonimbus clouds. These clouds are often an indication that there is a severe storm forming, perhaps even a tornado. These clouds are frequently found along with anvil clouds, which indicate thunderstorms forming. With all of the intense weather we’ve been having this week,  it's a strong possibility that a storm system is moving in. “However, there is one environmental trend that remains common through all of the formation mechanisms; that is, that across the anvil cloud/sub-cloud air boundary there exist sharp gradients in temperature, moisture and momentum (wind shear), which strongly influence Mammatus clouds” per Wikipedia. These clouds are fairly unusual, so I consider myself lucky to have been up early enough to see them and to have the presence of mind to take pictures of them. They almost look like they’re paintings, don’t they?