The Southeast was riveted Thursday by hole-punch cloud sightings seen above Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana.
Also called "fallstreak clouds," hole-punch clouds are cirrocumulus or altocumulus clouds that look like they have a giant hole punched in them and dangling trails of ice crystals — a stunning effect,
USA Today reports.
Such clouds have led people to speculate that the UFOs or other such nefarious causes may be at play, but a
study published in 2011 concluded that in most cases airplanes flying through the cumulus cloud layer accounts for at least some of the hole-punch cloud sightings.
The study, conducted at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, also found that in temperatures below five degrees the planes can cause additional snow or rain to fall after creating the cloud holes.
Meteorologists posted several pictures of the hole punch clouds on Twitter Thursday.
Hole punch clouds were also recently spotted in the skies above the Pacific Northwest, the
DailyMail.com reported.
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