Vortex Cloud

On a typically windy day in the Saline Valley I spotted a most unusual cloud.

A U-shaped cloud with two long tails was moving across the sky. It appeared to be streaming from a peak in the Inyo Mountain Range.

A pair of vortices were streaming from the shoulders of the mountain. The two vortices rotated in opposite directions like the vortices that stream from the wing tips of an airplane. Such paired vortices have a tendency to link together and form stable vortex rings.

Smoke vortex rings form as the wing tip vortices from a Hawker Sea Fury link together.

A second picture taken several seconds later shows the movement of the vortex ring.

Spiralling features can be seen in the vortex ring.

I have never seen any other pictures of a cloud like this one.

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