See amazing cloud formations swirl, spiral, swim over Baja California waters
How would you describe new NOAA satellite images of cloud formations known as ‘von Karman vortices?’
Stunning? Mesmerizing? Spellbinding?
The imagery, shown in the video above, was captured May 8, 2021 over Guadalupe Island, 150 miles west of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula.
The formations “occur when the prevailing wind is diverted by elevated land features such as islands, mountaintops, or volcanoes … causing the air, and its subsequent clouds, to rotate into a spiral shape,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The formations are named after Theodore von Kármán, a co-founder of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, according to NOAA. He was one of the first scientists to describe the phenomenon.
The pattern of the cloud swirls depends on the wind intensity, according to NOAA.
This story was originally published May 14, 2021 at 10:23 AM.
