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SALT LAKE CITY — A giant, impressive mushroom- or flower-shaped cloud glided over northern Utah on Thursday afternoon.
While cumulonimbus clouds, often called thunderheads, might be fairly common in summer, this one caught the attention of many residents with its almost perfectly symmetrical shape — resulting in some pretty amazing photos.
From some angles it looked like a mushroom, from some it looked like a willow tree with wispy branches and in others, it looked like a dandelion ready to make a wish on.
Cumulonimbus clouds form due to the convection of "warm, moist and unstable air," according to NASA.
"Surface air is warmed by the sun-heated ground surface and rises; if sufficient atmospheric moisture is present, water droplets will condense as the air mass encounters cooler air at higher altitudes. The air mass itself also expands and cools as it rises due to decreasing atmospheric pressure, a process known as adiabatic cooling," according to the agency.
NASA describes the type of cloud as common in tropical latitudes and in higher latitudes during the summer.
