Today I have gotten several emails from folks seeing an unusual, if not disturbing, cloud pattern in the visible satellite imagery.
I mean odd.
As shown below, you can see the object of concern.....a nearly perfect rectangle in the low clouds (mainly stratus and stratocumulus) due west of Baja California
What is particularly odd is that the box seems to nearly remain in place over time. This is not normal.
We have some international experts on low clouds in the subtropics in my department. In the past, several have talked about human intervention to modify such clouds artificially as a tool to reduce global warming.
They assured me that no such experiment was going on and they could not explain this bizarre appearance.
The Guardian newspaper also emailed about it, asking if this feature is the result of global warming. I assured them that there was no reason to expect that to be the case. And Charles Mudede, the self-styled "Green Mussolini" at the Seattle Stranger, also called, suggesting it was a "Wiccan rectangle." He also noted that it could be related to "Lucifer's rectangle."
You have to hand it to the Seattle Stranger staff, they are well informed in matters related to the devil and witchcraft.
The truth is that the cloud rectangle is probably just a random natural phenomenon: with enough time a strange geometric pattern is bound to appear.
But you never know.....
The human mind loves to make sense, out of nonsense....but the apparent fact that this shape has not morphed into a Pink Elephant, is disturbing!
ReplyDeletehahahaha. The obvious explanation is Chinese or maybe the spirit of Che Guevara weather meddling. This has the look of an 'artifact' of model tiling or something similar. Does that ever happen in these models?
ReplyDeleteThis is satellite imagery, not models.
DeleteStep aside, Bermuda Triangle, it's the Baja Rectangle!
ReplyDeleteVery witty!! Thumbs up!
DeleteHaha! Good one!
DeleteIt's like when the monkey with the type writer bangs out the first few words of the Lord's prayer. Shocking, but given that he's had it for years, bound to happen eventually. Though I'd always heard nature was round, not square and this has been true up till now.
ReplyDeleteIt's just nature saying to put the rectangle down. Stop texting, stop liking irrelevant photos of people you don't know, stop staring at your phone, stop holding up traffic, just make it go away. Apparently we need a cloud formation to get the message across.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe everyone is missing the obvious answer. This is a cloaked Alien Mothership hovering over the ocean.
ReplyDeleteCliff, is it disturbing or not? You say it's disturbing in the first sentence, then go on to debunk and cherry pick all of the reasons why it could be there, but conclude it's 'probably' a natural phenomenon but don't provide any more proof than any of the other theories.
ReplyDeleteHas anything like this ever been recorded before? Is there any proof at all that it's a natural phenomenon?
A persistent cloud pattern like that appeared over the San Francisco bay area, during the two weeks before the October 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
ReplyDeleteWell, it's not like there's been anything funky happening off southern California in recent years... (kidding--but very interesting phenomenon; eager to watch today's satellite feed). Have a great weekend, all!
ReplyDeleteCheck out Scientific American this month. Cover story on just this topic.
ReplyDeleteTheir website is down. Coincidence???
DeleteWild guess: a ship, heading east, was leaking oil, starting at one corner and stopping at another. Current or winds pulled the oil slick to make this shape, where evaporation was altered
ReplyDeleteUnidentified floating object.
ReplyDeletePerhaps a military run test for geo-enginering?
ReplyDeleteBermuda Triangle - Baja Rectangle - just waiting for some area to claim the circle and square.
ReplyDeleteIf I wrap my glasses with aluminum foil I can't hear your thoughts... Wait, what a rectangle? It's the apocalypse! Head for the bunker!
ReplyDeleteIf I wrap my glasses with aluminum foil I can't hear your thoughts... Wait, what a rectangle? It's the apocalypse! Head for the bunker!
ReplyDeleteIf you switch the satellite to “true-color” and change the interval to 4n, and last 200 frames, you can see the evolution of the formation, and see it’s completely natural. It appears “stationary” because it’s slow evolving, and our days are so short. Basically the few hours represented in that loop is a “snapshot” compared to its movement.
ReplyDeleteBut hey, anything for clicks.
Out of all the comments thus far, I favor the cloaked mothership theory. Probably looking down at evil humans in disgust.
ReplyDeleteCliff, we need to dive into this further. May help us understand the angular storm system at Saturn's north pole or maybe Saturn's hexagon shaped North pole storm can tell us about this one. Either way I think looking at one and comparing to other would be valid.
ReplyDelete