Eris Pil - Mammatus Sunset

Photo location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Camera: Pixel 3 Phone

Eris said, "the sky was completely lit up in a way I had never seen before, like these beautiful backlit watercolour clouds”, displaying these spectacular mammatus clouds overhead.

Mammatus clouds are some of the most unusual and distinctive and are usually associated with large cumulonimbus clouds. They appear as a series of bulges or pouches emerging from the base of the cloud and form in the most unstable cumulonimbus clouds due to turbulence within the cloud.

Mammatus comes from the Latin mamma, which translates to 'udder' or 'breast', and they are more visible when the sun is low in the sky, and the sunlight frames their pouches.

"I love mammatus clouds; this was my first time ever witnessing them. I hope I have the opportunity to see them again, and I'm excited to share what they look like with others".