Hotshots

i ‘Pancake Lenticulars’ Stavros Kesedakis, Greece

Almost every May, Stavros takes a trip to the USA to chase storms. On this particular day, he and his friend were following a supercell storm that couldn’t quite get its act together and produce a tornado. They were debating if they should keep following the storm when they noticed that it was forming two beautifully shaped clouds. It reminded Stavros of the smooth, laminar appearance of lenticular clouds.

While not strictly true lenticular clouds, such structures do form around thunderstorms when stable air is forced to rise, for example by a storm’s cold air outflow or via dynamic lifting by a strong updraft above. However, they