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Cumulus clouds bubble over Cascades in unstable atmosphere
Video shows cumulus clouds forming over the Cascades on July 12, 2021 (Video courtesy: Kevin Freitas)
SEATTLE - It was a pleasant, sunny Monday in the lowlands, but up in the northern Cascades, the skies were quite a bit more turbulent.
A weak trough of low pressure slid over the region bringing a little bit of cooler air aloft. That creates instability in the atmosphere and soon the day's heat used the mountains as a springboard to shoot some towering cumulus clouds over the ridgetops.
Kevin Freitas was watching the show and took this amazing time lapse video of the clouds' development:
The show was visible by satellite images as well:
Unfortunately some of those cumulus clouds graduated into thunderstorms that brought lightning to north-central Washington, triggering at least one wildfire along the Colville Indian Reservation, according to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center.