This camera is unique in that it is focused on the top of Mt. Rainier in an effort to capture the development and decay of lenticular or wave clouds. The camera is using a 10X telescopic lens set providing a much closer view of the top of the mountain. As you view this you may find that most of the time the mountain will be obscured by other clouds making it impossible to see anything. However check back on a regular basis, or if when viewing the main wide angle camera you see a clear spot on the horizon at the location of the red arrow in the photo on the left.

Lenticular clouds or "Cap on the Mountain" are created from a variety  of different weather conditions, for example when a warm moist air mass settles in on the area, topped with a cold dry air mass above it and then the air mass moves. When this occurs, the lower air mass acting like a flowing river hits the side of the mountain lifting the warm moist air up into the cold air causing the moisture to condense and form the classic "Cap" above the mountain. Then as the condensed moist air flows over and down the other side it re warms and evaporates again and the cloud decays. This can create some very interesting cloud formations and can even be mistaken by some folks as a UFO. Many different conditions are required to generate some of the worlds most unique lenticular cloud formations, some of which can be quite complex.

Short file footage video

click here if you can not see the video

Right Click and "Save Target As" to download video to your system or left click to view "On Line".

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More information on lenticular clouds to come in the future, check back frequently.