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Mammatus clouds are ominous and beautiful

A house and trees in the foreground with with a sky full of mammatus clouds above.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Michael O’Connor captured this image on June 12, 2025, from Michigan and wrote: “Mammatus Clouds. First time ever seeing them.” Thank you, Michael!

Mammatus clouds: Ominous and beautiful

Mammatus clouds are pouch-like protrusions hanging from the undersides of clouds. You’ll usually find them under thunderstorm anvil clouds. But you might see them under other types of clouds as well. They’re composed primarily of ice, and groups of them can extend hundreds of miles in any direction. But they’re fleeting, remaining visible in your local sky for perhaps 10 or 15 minutes at a time.

People associate these cloud pouches with severe weather. And it’s true; they typically appear around, before or after a storm.

In fact, most clouds are formed by rising air. But mammatus clouds are interesting in part because they’re formed by sinking air.

They appear ominous. And they do signify storms. But, in a way that’s so common in nature, their dangerous aspect goes hand-in-hand with a magnificent beauty.

Beautiful bubbling clouds

Trees in the foreground with with bubbling mammatus clouds above.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Aaron Watson captured this image on June 17 2025, from Colorado and wrote: “Interesting mammatus clouds this morning. It looked like long deep grooves across the sky.” Thank you, Aaron!
Cloud bank overhead with orange bubbles and darker blue behind.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Lina Tomlin in Texarkana, Texas, caught these mammatus clouds on April 29, 2024. Lina wrote: “Stepped outside and my jaw dropped. I loved watching this massive storm cell roll by. I saw more ‘bubble’ clouds appear, and as the sun went down they lit up. I’ve never been this close to clouds like that. Thrilling!” Thank you, Lina!

Beautiful, bubbling clouds from 2023

Apartment-like buildings in foreground with clouds with many roundish downward protrusions.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Filipp Romanov in Yuzhno-Morskoy, Russia, captured these mammatus clouds on June 4, 2023. Thank you, Filipp!
Pine trees below with bubbling mammatus clouds above.
EarthSky’s Kelly Kizer Whitt shared this photo of mammatus clouds from Colter Bay in Grand Teton National Park on May 30, 2023.

Mammatus clouds from 2022

Bulbous clouds as seen from below, partly sunlit yellow.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Peg Yates in Woodbridge, Virginia, took this image on August 22, 2022. Peg wrote: “Mammatus clouds in the western sky when the sun was setting.” Thank you, Peg!
Mammatus clouds: Low-hanging clouds with large rounded bumps hanging down.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Michael Geib caught these mammatus clouds from Akron, Ohio, on July 20, 2022. Thank you, Michael!
Spreading sheet of white clouds with bumpy spots on underside low and far away, train in foreground.
Mammatus clouds from Kelly Kizer Whitt at the Amtrak station in Whitefish, Montana, on July 7, 2022. See the mammatus clouds on the far underside of the storm? Image via Kelly Kizer Whitt.

Bottom line: Mammatus clouds look like bubbling, low-hanging clouds. They’re often associated with thunderstorms. Learn more about them here and see photos.

Posted 
July 31, 2025
 in 
Earth

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Deborah Byrd

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