Sunset Orange Lenticular Clouds
© Alessandro Saffo/SOPA/eStock
Countess of the Winds
Against a Sicilian sunset, a strange cloud like a stacked pair of flying saucers looms motionless near Mount Etna's summit. Lenticular clouds form close to prominent mountains in special conditions where water vapor condenses over a summit, then is shaped and smoothed by waves of wind passing over the slopes. The lenticular cloud that forms over Etna appears often enough that locals gave it a nickname: Contessa dei Venti, or Countess of the Winds, perhaps after its billowy layers resembling a rotund noblewoman's dress.
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