Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
About two weeks ago, my family and I were backpacking near Escalante, Utah. On Friday night, a storm front moved in and rained a little. On Saturday morning as we were hiking out, we noticed a low bank of clouds hanging on the west side of 50 mile ridge. The remainder of the sky was mostly blue with a few clouds floating here and there. But, this bank of clouds stayed there all morning and afternoon. We watched it carefully and it did not move or break up even though the wind was blowing quite hard perhaps 30-40 mph on the ground. My question. Why did that 40-50 mile long bank of clouds (thick and similar to cumulus) not move or spread out with that much wind. Why did the bank just hang around in a line along mostly the entire length of 50 mile ridge (which stands about 1,000-1500 feet above the desert floor)? We observed this phenomenon from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. When we left the area, the clouds were still there so I don't know how long they actually lasted along 50 mile ridge. If you have the answer, it would be most interesting. Thanks
Rodney S.
***********************************************************
It's time again it seems to talk about Orographic lift. If the wind was blowing about 30 mph, did you notice if it was blowing in the direction toward the mountains?
When air is moving over a mountain it is rising. This rising air cools, condenses and then forms a cloud. On the lee side of the mountain the air comes down, evaporates and the cloud is dissipated. We call this Orographic lift. Orographic clouds can hang out all day and there are a couple of types of them. We often see Lenticular clouds in Utah that look like a lens or a spaceship, some people think they look even like UFO's! Those are ographic clouds too.
If the wind was blowing up that windward side of the mountain, the air was continually rising, cooling and condensing and forming a cloud that wasn't moving.
Some links on the right can help you learn more about this neat weather effect.
Answered by Dina Freedman KSL Meteorologist
