Mount Washington in the distance
These clouds look good enough to eat!
Staff at New Hampshire's famed Mount Washington Observatory were treated to a surprise visit Monday — a clump of clouds resembling a stack of flapjacks that floated over the tallest mountain in the Northeast.
They were lenticular clouds, the observatory said, a type of cloud that sometimes looks like flying saucers.
"Lenticular clouds form in the crests of gravity waves created by relatively stable, fast-moving air when it is forced up and over a mountain oriented perpendicular to the wind direction," the observatory said on social media. "Typically, there are only one to two layers in a lenticular cloud, but the biggest one this afternoon had over seven!"
Followers of the account began sharing their own recent lenticular sightings, both from under Mount Washington and around the world.
The Mount Washington Observatory is no stranger to extreme weather. Last winter, it set a record with a recording of 36 degrees below zero.
The observatory is equipped to last the cold, though, and its resident cat wasn't bothered at the time.
