The Best Guide for the Neston Area

'UFOs' Spotted Over Parkgate

Rare cloud formations over the region at the weekend prompted some to wonder if UFOs were circling overhead.

As you can see from these photos taken at Parkgate by Bernard Rose, the highly unusual shapes were a spectacular sight.

The technical term for these cloud formations is altocumulus standing lenticularis - basically lens-shaped and high up!  More often to be seen in very mountainous regions, this weekend they were spotted from Manchester over to North Wales.

An explanation in layman's terms is offered on the wired.com website: "You take your grandma's Cadillac and drive it over a speed bump, and after that it goes up and down for a while...the reason you are going down is because of gravity, and then there are springs in the suspension that push you back up.

"In the case of lenticular clouds, the speed bump is usually some kind of topography, like a mountain, that gets in the way of air flow. As the air comes down the side of the mountain, it tends to overshoot and then springs back up. It oscillates like this for a while, and on the upward part of the waves, clouds form as rising air cools."

If you took photos of the lenticular clouds at the weekend, and would like to add some here, please send them to us by email.

Your Photos

From Rhian Bowen:

From Janet Jones Mansell:

From Russ Brooks:

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