While nature’s beauty comes in countless forms, some of the most stunning displays are the painted skies of sunrise and sunset. While we thankfully enjoy the simple action of a rising and falling sun every day, it is the atmosphere and weather patterns that bring it all to climax in the way of cloud formations. Each season brings all manner of cloud formations, but autumn and winter produce some of the favorites to photograph, the Altocumulus Standing Lenticularis cloud walls.

Lenticular clouds, sometimes referred to as UFO clouds, are a type of formation that occur specifically due to mountains. They are famously observed in images of peaks like Mt. Fuji in Japan and Mt. Shasta in California, often seen as “stacks” of disc-shaped clouds hovering above the summit. While we occasionally see the disks forming independently, along the Front Range the dynamic of the mountains and the plains set us up for a much larger presentation in the way of a massive wall stretching from north to south following the contours of the range.

These cloud walls are commonly seen here from late fall through early spring when winds tend to be a bit more volatile, and it is the high-altitude wind currents that help to create the phenomenon. The formations are associated with atmospheric waves that form when fast-moving air is pushed into and over the landmass of the mountains when the wind direction is perpendicular to the range.

As everything that goes up must come down, this upward push over the mountains creates a gravity wave down wind from the range, which if seen, would appear similar to ripples on a body of water. If there is sufficient moisture in the air above the leeward side of the mountains, the clouds begin to form in the initial “crest” of the first wave in those ripples.

This wave-like motion of the air creates a very dynamic situation, as the cloud is both building at the front (near the mountains) and dissipating further east as the crest of the wave descends. This simultaneous growth and disbursement of the cloud makes it appear to be standing still, and with the right conditions, can remain in place for many hours, even throughout an entire day.

While they are over us during the day, they tend to be a drab, grey mass that just hangs above us. This often makes for a dull light as the sun is blocked by the wall for most of the day where skies are typically clear and blue to the east and west, adding to the surreal feel of the phenomenon. A windy day leads one to think the clouds would be scudding across the vast sea of blue, yet the massive wall stubbornly only moves maybe a mile, tops, throughout the entire day.

As the sun begins to set, the supposed static nature of the cloud gives way to the real dynamics of what is happening in the atmosphere above us as the lower angle of the sun provides defining shadows and contrast. Like any sunset, the golden, diffused light begins to illuminate the back end of the formation, and the reality of what is going on becomes better defined in a mind-bending display of waves and glorious colors. One can watch the cloud wall literally being sculpted into a bizarre and stunningly beautiful masterpiece seemingly from some alternate psychedelic reality.

As with any painted-sky sunset, the colors slowly change with the ebbing, sinking light, and the entire sculpture subtly morphs with each passing second. The colors go from the dull, drab daytime grey to brilliant oranges and yellows, and on to deeper reds and purples of the pre-twilight finale. At the same time, the shape and form discretely changes with the constant growth and dissipation of the cloud wall itself in the blasting winds.

Often the peak of these displays causes another surreal phenomenon I like to call an “oranging,” as the static nature of the cloud wall, now turned a deep orange in the sunset, bathes the land below in a similar color cast. Everything, even the air itself, seems to turn orange in the overabundant reflected glory.

Seen here during one such spectacular display over Grassy Top near Ward, the snows themselves seemed to have fallen with a tinge of orange as though produced by the sunlight itself. A true bit of stunning natural glory from mother nature’s awe-inspiringly grand catalog of jaw-dropping beauty.

A source for this article can be found at https://www.weather.gov/abq/features_acsl.

For additional information about James DeWalt Photography, check out https://jamesdewaltphotography.com.