Asperitas clouds

Drove back from Leeds with Andy this morning - through some pretty dreadful weather. Fairly heavy rain, but winds strong enough to close the A66 between Scotch Corner & Penrith to all high-sided vehicles. Driving over it was a real challenge even in a normal car - the gusts over the high sections required a firm grip on the steering wheel!

It stayed pretty grim all day, right up to late afternoon when the heavy clouds parted for about 5 minutes to reveal these fabulous Asperitas clouds above them. Asperitas  is a cloud formation first popularized and proposed as a type of cloud in 2009 by Gavin Pretor-Pinney of the Cloud Appreciation Society. Added to the International Cloud Atlas as a supplementary feature in March 2017