National Weather Service offers details on ‘fallstreak hole’
By Guy Page
The National Weather Service is attributing a strange ‘hole in the clouds’ Sunday morning to a ‘fallstreak hole,’ a phenomenon caused by a rare interaction between airplane and cloud.
The National Weather Service displayed a photo of the cloud and reported on X at 11:08 AM:
“Did you see a hole in the clouds earlier today over the Champlain Valley? That’s called a fallstreak hole, or a hole punch cloud. This type of cloud is usually formed when the water temperature of the cloud is below freezing, but the water has not frozen. When an aircraft passes through the cloud, the air around its wings and body expands and cools, triggering the water droplets to turn into tiny ice crystals, which are heavier than droplets and will begin to fall out of the cloud, leaving a hole behind.”
The post had more than 3500 views as of Monday morning. Several commenters contributed their own photos, saying they were taken at about 8 AM. The location seems to be near the shoreline of Lake Champlain.
At least one commenter wondered if there’s something more going on: “How much cloud seeding is going on around here?”
Another person asked if there was a connection between that fallstreak and a photo of a contrail seen a day earlier near the same location.
See slide show of photos contributed to NWS public Facebook page by Ben Throop (one, two) and Liam Griffin (three):
