How do hole punch clouds form

So keep looking up and maybe one day, you'll spot one of these hole punch clouds. Open in Our App. Download it here. Getty Images. Hole punch clouds, also known as fallstreak holes, are one of the most unique clouds there are. Multiple locations were found. Please select one of the following:. Location Help. News Headlines. Customize Your Weather. Privacy Policy. Fallstreak - What Are They? Sometimes, when ice and the supercooled liquid droplets coexist within a cloud, a process occurs whereby ice crystals grow at the expense of the droplets.

If the mixed cloud is agitated, the supercooled droplets freeze instantaneously. It is understood through microphysical arguments that water vapor must evaporate from the surrounding supercooled droplets and flow towards the ice crystals. This would start a cycle whereby newly formed ice crystals cause the surrounding droplet to evaporate, resulting in a circular form void of clouds with a mass of crystals in the center.

Many photos taken that day seem to represent this process. What caused the disturbance to begin? One possible explanation is a jet plane. Visible satellite imagery that day suggested several "hole punch" clouds over both southern MS and AL. These coincided with jet contrails. The image to the right shows the "hole punch" clouds in Australia with an airplane contrail nearby.

An airplane passing through the mixed cloud layer while ascending or descending would likely disrupt the delicate coexistence between the ice crystals and the supercooled liquid water droplets. A second possible explanation is that small scale atmospheric vertical motions both up and down related to the jet stream brought ice crystals downward into the moist cloud layer, thus effectively 'setting off' the cyclic process described above.

One thing is for sure Read this post from the Capital Weather Gang at The Washington Post to see photographs of hole-punch clouds taken from the ground. Caption by Adam Voiland. View this area in EO Explorer. Hole-punch and canal clouds form when aircraft pass through altocumulus clouds that are rich with supercooled water droplets.

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