Some Boulder residents on Wednesday were perplexed by a twisting cloud formation above the foothills.
Several people posted photos of the odd phenomenon on social media.
Amazing cloud formation over the flatirons… awesome!
— Amir Caspi, Ph.D. (@astronamir)
Interesting twisted clouds above Boulder at noon today
— Chuck Haight (@chucknsuperior)
Marshall Shepherd, an atmospheric sciences professor, posited that the sight could have been a rare helix cloud, which requires either contrails or thin clouds to be spun by a twisting cylinder of air.
Helix cloud. Rare but does happen, found this info
— Dr. Marshall Shepherd (@DrShepherd2013)
The National Weather Service said the wind disturbance was. Chuck Haight posted on Twitter that he thought the cloud was a natural formation, as he did not witness any planes in the area while it was forming.
Of course, others on social media weighed in with not-as-scientific explanations, including chem trails, aliens and unicorn farts.
Obviously a flying unicorn fart
— Sherryn (@peacefulheart13)
This is not the first time Boulder County has been enthralled by a strange cloud formation. In 2017, a made its way across the county and onto social media.
