Bizarre ‘mothership’ cloud which looks like a UFO hovers over New Mexico city bringing intense lighting and strong winds
- A shelf cloud formed over the city of Clovis, New Mexico June 23
- A video shows the disk-shape cloud with flashes of lightning coming out of it
- In the distance there is a clear sky and stunning sunset
- However, under the cloud is pouring rain and strong winds from the storm
- The clouds form when a cold front storm collides with warm, humid air
A bizarre ‘mothership’ cloud appeared over a city in New Mexico that eerily resembled the massive alien ship in the 1996 film Independence Day.
But the structure was not an alien invasion, but a weather phenomenon known as a shelf cloud that forms when cold front storms collide with warm, humid air.
A video capturing the weather event was taken in Clovis on June 23 and shows a stunning sunset in the distance with lightning striking from the massive disk-shaped cloud.
Heavy rainfall also poured over the town below, bringing along strong winds – but no significant damage was caused by the storm.
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A bizarre ‘mothership’ cloud appeared over a city in New Mexico that eerily resembled the massive alien ship in the 1996 film Independence Day
The structure was not a Martian invasion, but a weather phenomenon known as a shelf cloud that forms when cold front storms collide with warm, humid air
The rare weather event was shot by Christian Hernandez who told Fox 5: ‘The sunset was beautiful as a stunning mothership cloud moved closer into town that evening.’
These intimidating quirks of the climate were officially named as a new type of cloud in the World Meteorological Organisation’s Cloud Atlas in 2018.
According to the AccuWeather weather glossary, a shelf cloud is ‘a low, horizontal wedge-shaped cloud, associated with a thunderstorm gust front.’
Shelf cloud formations are often mistaken for tornadoes or funnel clouds.
They are normally an indication that a storm is approaching.
The cloud resembled the massive alien ship in the 1996 film Independence Day (pictured)
Shelf clouds are low hanging, which makes them appear even larger to the eye.
The clouds can even be found just a couple hundred feet above the ground.
Last June, an entire town in Wisconsin was engulfed by a shelf cloud.
Around 9:00am CT clouds that initially looked like waves came washing onto the shore in Verona, headed east towards Milwaukee and made its way toward Lake Michigan.
‘This the ‘I’m staying in the house all day’ type of weather,’ said one user, sharing a photo of cloudy skies in Milwaukee. Milwaukee is approximately 1.5 hours east of Verona.
Milwaukee-based We Energies told the Journal Sentinel that 14,000 customers were without power by late morning.
A video capturing the weather event was taken in Clovis on June 23 and shows a stunning sunset in the distance with lightning striking from the massive disk-shaped cloud
The storm brought down tree limbs and damaged dozens of poles that linked hundreds of electrical wires.
According to the National Weather Service in Green Bay, roughly three hours northeast of Verona, scattered storms were hitting the eastern part of the state into the afternoon.