Hole punch clouds in the sky | Hey Ray

I love when viewers notice something cool in the sky!

Ron noticed something interesting and asked: "Hey Ray! What kind of cloud formation is this?"  

The pictures show a big hole that seems carved out in the clouds. It is not your normal space between clouds - it is a hole in the clouds!

That is what we call a "fall streak hole" or, more generically, a "hole punch cloud."  

The cool thing about these clouds is that they actually are holes that were punched by something moving through them.

Remember, for clouds to be suspended in the sky, the water in them is broken up into tiny cloud droplets. Sometimes, those droplets can drop below freezing but stay liquid.  

We showed you in the past how supercooled water can freeze instantly in a bottle. This is the process that happens in the sky!

When we flicked the bottle, we introduced a bubble that the ice crystals could grow on. In the sky, the ice crystals get set off by other things, like an aircraft flying through the cloud.

The National Weather Service says, "Once the ice crystals are introduced, the water droplets quickly freeze, grow, and start to fall. A hole is left behind, which will start to expand outward as neighboring droplets start to freeze."

This leaves a hole in the sky known as a "fallstreak hole" or "hole punch cloud", and that is super cool.