See a gallery of heart-shaped clouds
It was during a trek in Vanoise National Park in the French Alps that noticed this striking configuration in the sky 鈥� and was lucky enough to capture it in the seconds before it was gone.
This 鈥渉eart cloud鈥� turns out to be two clouds at different altitudes. The left lobe is likely to be a high-altitude , a wispy cloud containing ice crystals that probably formed when air was forced up over the mountains. On the right, at a lower altitude, is an containing supercooled water droplets. The hazy patch between the two could be a shower of ice crystals.
Advertisement
Opinion is divided on whether the clouds are interacting with each other. One romantic interpretation is that the cirrus cloud is sending down ice crystals to its altocumulus partner, helping it to develop and mature. The more prosaic view is that the apparent association is nothing more than a trick of perspective.