Rare phenomenon: Horseshoe cloud picture goes viral on social media

Cloudy sky
Horseshoe cloud (Representational picture) Reuters

Remember those days, when you looked at the clouds and ask your childhood friend to find out a particular shape, which you might have created through your creative imagination? On Thursday, March 8, a person came across a phenomenon, where he witnessed and captured a rare form of cloud over Nevada.

The image of the cloud, which looks like a horseshoe was posted on Twitter by The National Weather Service in Elko, Nevada. The post also included the picture credit, which was given to Christy Grimes, who captured the phenomena.

This incident again triggered the never-ending mystery of alien existence among the Twitter users, who saw the picture on social media. The NWS Elko explained how the cloud has formed while providing scientific explanations.

The authority mentioned that the movement of the wind has played a major role to form the cloud shape.

While describing the process of forming such clouds, the Cloud Appreciation Society has said that the procedure happens in a region of spinning air or vortex. This process also causes cyclone or a tornado, when the vortex is vertical but when it forms horizontally, it forms a crescent cloud.

The website also mentioned that "such a movement of air seems to happen when an up draught is sent into a spin upon reaching shearing horizontal winds. Rarely are conditions right for a cloud to appear within the spin."

In addition to that it mentioned that such horseshoe usually brig luck when it is pointing upwards but in Nevada, people are thinking that as the cloud has turned down, it must have dropped good luck on those who are staying down below.

There are several comments appeared on Twitter. While some of the users were saying that the horseshoe was looked like a floating mustache, many thought it looked like a staple for the paper. There are many comments which used this rare phenomenon to create another troll.

@NWSElko / Twitter
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