Natural beauty is not something we are short of in Scotland, from our rolling glens to our atmospheric lochs, there aren’t too many countries that can rival our landscapes.
Sometimes, however, stunning sights can appear in more unusual places. So it was in March 2022, when people across Scotland had their eyes glued to the sky after spotting a rare and beautiful sight.
Baffled Scots were left scratching their heads after spotting ‘UFO-shaped clouds’ above their heads, including in the capital city, and many took to social media to share their photos, Edinburgh Live reports.
The orb-light phenomena left many onlookers puzzled and concerned – but they needn’t have worried. Experts at the Met Office explained that what they had spotted was not extraterrestrial but, in fact, lenticular clouds.
The rare formations come together when the air is stable and winds blow across hills and mountains from the same or similar direction at different heights.
Pilots try to avoid them because they can cause turbulence. And the sightings in Edinburgh and Wishaw were not the first appearances of the clouds that year, with people in the Highlands and Borders both experiencing them a few weeks previously.
(Image: Catherine Boyle)
A spokesperson from the Met Office said: «These strange, unnatural looking clouds sometimes form downwind of hills or mountains. They are quite unusual in the British Isles but do occasionally occur.»
«They look a lot like the traditional shape of flying saucers in science fiction, and real lenticular clouds are believed to be one of the most common explanations for UFO sightings across the world.
«When air blows across a mountain range, in certain circumstances, it can set up a train of large standing waves in the air downstream, rather like ripples forming in a river when water flows over an obstruction.
«If there is enough moisture in the air, the rising motion of the wave will cause water vapour to condense, forming the unique appearance of lenticular clouds.
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«Lenticular clouds are a visible sign of mountain waves in the air. However, these waves can be present beyond the clouds, and may exist even when no clouds are formed.
«On the ground, they can result in very strong gusty winds in one place, with still air only a few hundred metres away. Pilots of powered aircraft tend to avoid flying near lenticular clouds because of the turbulence that accompany them.»
«Skilled (and brave) glider pilots, on the other hand, like them, because they can tell from the shape of the clouds where the air will be rising.»
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