As we drove around Albuquerque yesterday, Lori and noticed clouds over the mountains.

At first we assumed a storm was coming in, but despite a good wind from the mountains, the clouds never moved.

For 7 hours, the ridge of clouds stayed put while the rest of the sky remained clear. We were looking at lenticular clouds. As the wind goes over the mountain the air temperature drops to the dew point, forming clouds. As the wind comes back down the near side the dew point goes up, and the clouds disappear. Often these clouds are caused by a single mountain and are disk shaped. See more examples at Lenticular Clouds – Crystalinks.

Image Credits: © Paul H. Byerly