by Marco Bruno
The picture was taken by a woman and posted to Facebook, causing it to quickly go viral. This atmospheric phenomenon has a scientific explanation: it’s called the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability
The crest of the Bighorn mountain range merges with the sky. This is Wyoming—land of farmers, little money in their pockets but big work on their shoulders—captured in the incredible shot of a woman named Rachel Gordon, a resident of the Cowboy State, portraying a group of clouds gathering on the Land outline snow-capped peaks of mountains, which become almost a natural continuation. Very high clouds that look like surfing waves.
Gordon’s photo was taken on Tuesday December 6th in the town of Sheridan. This atmospheric phenomenon has a scientific explanation: it’s called the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability and it occurs when two atmospheric regions of different densities collide, carried by strong winds. The phenomenon was studied by the scientists Lord Kelvin (1824-1907) and Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894).
Wyoming, picture-postcard America away from fashionable coasts, a place for cowboys. But also a magical state. Involved in the production of the film Frozen. Kingdom of Ice (2013), the most commercially successful in animation history, Disney recruited snow crystal scientists and sent animators and special effects managers to study the snow on location.
Rachel Gordon told the BBC that she was at her parents’ house when she was photographing the clouds: a majestic image, I’m delighted that the photo has gone viral and that other people can enjoy its beauty too. The shot also wowed meteorological experts, who said it was a rare and sensational example of the Kelvin-Helmholtz phenomenon.
Like ocean waves, the atmosphere moves and reacts to its surroundings, explains BBC meteorologist Matt Taylor.
A similar event occurred in Breckenridge, Colorado, in 2015, although the one that occurred in Wyoming this week was exceptional in scope given its size.
December 9, 2022 (change December 9, 2022 | 11:54 am)
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