Woman Captures Rare Sight of a Perfectly Spherical Cloud Floating in the Sky

spherical cloud

Photo credit: @pmxpvrtmx

We’ve all seen clouds that seemingly resemble real things, but what about a fluffy orb that just hangs in the sky? That is truly unusual. Twitter user @pmxpvrtmx (aka Poppy) recently witnessed this incredible sight and captured the spherical cloud as it hovered above houses in Fujisawa, a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. After staring at the phenomena, she “rushed to take the photo.” On Twitter, she recalled, “When I saw the cloud it was an even more spherical shape, so I regret not taking the photo more quickly.”

The viral tweet caused a stir online. Users thought it so strange that it must be fake, but Poppy maintains that she didn’t edit the pictures at all. To add to her credibility, other people shared similar images featuring otherworldly clouds.

So, what caused this unusual formation? One explanation is that it falls into the “roll cloud” category. A type of arcus cloud, it's usually formed by outflows of cold air from the sea winds. More commonly, they're long, tubular shapes that look like a rolling pin in the sky.

Here are some other spherical cloud sightings:

spherical cloud

Photo credit: @NicoSpqy9ba9

spherical cloud

Photo credit: hanabusa_haru

These are cylindrical roll clouds, which also look supernatural:

rolling cloud

Photo credit: wbirt1

rolling cloud

Photo source: Earth Touch

rolling cloud

Photo source: Earth Touch

rolling cloud

Photo credit: Daniela Mirner Eberl

h/t: [RocketNews24]

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met, Manager of My Modern Met Store, and co-host of the My Modern Met Top Artist Podcast. As an illustrator and writer living in Seattle, she chronicles illustration, embroidery, and beyond through her blog Brown Paper Bag and Instagram @brwnpaperbag. She wrote a book about embroidery artist Sarah K. Benning titled 'Embroidered Life' that was published by Chronicle Books in 2019. Sara is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art. She earned her BFA in Illustration in 2008 and MFA in Illustration Practice in 2013.
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