Cloud

[mushroom]

Every so often we get these really long thin clouds out the south west. Yep it’s a cloud, not a vapour trail ( or chem trail ).

Got a pretty good shot of one the other night.

I’ve no idea what type it is. If you know please let me know.

 

[geoguy]

Being so long & straight, I would have bet folding money that it was a contrail (vapor from a jet engine).

 

[GAD]

Why do you dismiss it being a contrail?

 

[steve488]

I have seen images of wind shear causing some could formations in lines, but never quite that straight or for that kind of distance. I would suspect a contrail that stayed in place long after the aircraft went past.

 

[Midnight Toker]

Living in a flight path, and regularly vacationing in one as well, depending on conditions, contrails (which technically are still clouds) from jets can linger for a very long time. The only other clouds w/ thin lines are from the Cirrus/Cirro types, but they always have some breakup, or look like a rib cage w/ strands off to the side. Contrails can also move quite some distance while still holding their shape, so you don't actually have to see a plane go by to see contrails. They can stretch and bend, but still keep their linear shape after having moved 100 miles in the sky.

 

[mushroom]

I didn’t think it was a contrail as it’s not a flight path.

I see those out the other direction regularly and they seem more consistent in shape and are a lot straighter.

Maybe it is? I’m going to check out the flight tracker next time I see one out there.

 

[gjmalcyon]

Contrails usually spread out or disperse and you can usually deduce the direction of travel of the aircraft by assuming it was moving from the fat end toward the skinny end of the contrail. That looks like it has fairly constant diameter.

That almost looks like some kind of long skinny lenticular cloud.

If you were in Oz I'd suggest it was a baby Morning Glory cloud:

 

[mushroom]

Maybe Lenticular.

Cool. I’ll goggle it. Thanks.

 

[chazmo]

That's pretty cool, mushroom, but I'm betting on contrail as well. Perhaps a single-engine jet (Air Force F-16, perhaps)? What's unusual to my eye is how long it is without being dispersed. However, if I look at the left-hand side of your picture, I see it starting to do so.

If this is a natural cloud formation, I'd be very curious to hear what it might be. I don't think lenticular formations look like that.