Santa Ana Wave Clouds
April 06, 2020
Photographer: Mark Ritter
Summary Authors: Mark Ritter; Jim Foster
This impressive scene showing the Santa Rosa Plateau and a breathtaking sky was taken from Murrieta California, on February 2, 2020. The Santa Ana Mountains are in the background. Airflow over these mountains initiated an atmospheric wave and the formation of orographic wave clouds. The layered look to these lenticular clouds resulted because enough moisture was available and because the air stream aloft was quite strong, for several consecutive hours. Thus, at the wave crests, layers of clouds formed one upon the other.