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Early-morning ‘skypunch’ had nothing to do with aliens

Strange cloud formation photographed near Sidney explained
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A fallstreak hole near Sidney, B.C. photographed by Bill Buckingham on Jan. 28 around 6 a.m. (Bill Buckingham photo)

This strange cloud formation was photographed near Sidney, and Twitter threads show photos taken from UVic, as well.

Ed Wiebe, Scientific Assistant at UVic explains the background on Twitter. The formation is known as a “fallstreak hole” in which a large gap, usually circular, appears in cirrocumulus or altocumulus cloud.

Wiebe explains that the fallstreak hole, also known as a “skypunch” is formed when the water in the centre of the cloud drops below freezing and enters a supercooled state but is not yet frozen, and begins evaporating away from a disturbance in the centre.

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