Alert Abbotsford News reader June Born sent us this photo of a hole-punch cloud seen in the skies over the city early Monday afternoon.
The same cloud was spotted over Vancouver Island 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.
Three views of the same phenomenon, three and thirteen minutes after the first image. This is a fallstreak hole. Supercooled liquid water in the clouds rapidly changes to ice because of a disturbance near the centre of the hole. The disturbance spreads.#UVic #VictoriaBC 1/3 pic.twitter.com/jesDMCVTJy
— Ed Wiebe (@edwiebe) January 28, 2019
Several other people posted photos of the weather phenomenon on social media.
@GlobalBC haven’t seen this before in Abbotsford pic.twitter.com/Fb7Fe7Ioaf
— Letty Rowley (@crashovertime) January 28, 2019
Less prominent than this morning, but another fall streak hole in the clouds #abbotsford #bc #bcwx #bcstorm pic.twitter.com/oQruJb61W2
— Curtis Reimer (@_curtisreimer) January 28, 2019
