ERLANGER, Ky. — It looks like a stingray. Or maybe a crab-shaped UFO? It was definitely odd enough to turn heads in northern Kentucky on Sunday.
This photo arrived to my Twitter feed with the usual musings of what this could be. Thankfully, it is a quick answer and it has nothing to do with extraterrestrial life.
What you are looking at in the photo is a fallstreak hole.
Photo: Doug Brown
It's a weather phenomenon that happens in cirrus decks of clouds. In this case, it was made up of supercooled water droplets. As ice crystals were introduced into that layer of clouds, the water drops started to evaporate in the center of the hole and spread out until it reached saturation.
I know, it sounds complex and it all comes from the Bergeron Process.
