Anyone ever seen interstate-induced clouds before? Low level CU developed perfectly along major interstates around Houston this morning. Kind of shocking to see such perfectly lined up clouds. #txwx

Still picture

I have literally always wondered if the urban heat island is enough to initiate cu or even storms. Yesterday a pulse storm went up directly over downtown Tulsa. This has to he the clearest proof I've seen

In my experience from my flight instructor days back in old 172s and cherokees, I can absolutely attest to the fact that turbulence and updrafts are vastly worse over large pieces of heated pavement. Considering we were always flying right around 1000 feet or less over them getting out of our class delta airspace. You’d fly over a large Costco parking lot or something and immediately feel it. I also swear you’d feel large industrial AC units as well up to a certain altitude.

@StrmchsrHunterF Guess the heating of the asphalt combined with the additional heat of heavy traffic will do it in the right conditions!

Would this be considered illegal under Florida’s new weather modification ban?

@SalidaBooks Yes highly illegal, must arrest whoever commissioned the roads

Not a yank and definitely not familiar with Houston's road system, but are any of those portions of roads raised? Where they'd form an orographic-ish effect? Are those road systems primarily asphalt/tar or concrete? Is this just sheer output from vehicles?

A lot of those roads are raised, and most of them are concrete. The output from vehicles may also play in, not 100% sure. But I think the elevation of the roads plays into it a lot

oh how I wish the mesosector was over this

First thing I looked for 😕

@ameliaUrquhart_ This is an incredible example of how pavement creates heat islands and can impact the atmosphere

Reminds me of the guy who pulled data on a hunch and found that weekends were significantly more likely to be rainy than early weekdays in NYC, likely as a result of cloud seeding from increased weekday traffic emissions.

Not what you're talking about per se but it reminded me of this post a few months ago

no, this is cool. makes sense as the huge highway sends more heat skyward than the surrounding grass. that asphalt must be 160

You can also see similar effects in the ocean under well-traveled shipping lanes, though I’ve seen satellite imagery that shows that even single ships can produce clouds under the right conditions.

Clouds almost always require a condensation nucleus in order to form, and cars are a source of condensation nuclei. By extension, heavier, traffic means more clouds.

@Motomaniac_tn So fun fact, I live directly off the interstate in Houston and this is exactly what I witness a lot in the year, it is particularly prominent when it comes to fog buildup.

@NolanTrees Yes, microclimates are definitely a thing. I-35 through Kansas is notorious for it, especially since it's usually aligned perfectly with the fronts that move through there.

houston is extremely humid, when cars exhaust hot gas and water vapor into the air that is already saturated with water then it condenses

Probably has more to do with a combination of vehicle exhaust (aiding nucleation) and convection (the sun on the black road). Cars make exhaust which already wants rise slowly, and the heated air at the road surface jets the exhaust higher and faster. Now you have fast rising air and plenty of impurities to seed cloud development.

Pavement induced cu due to the cu heating up faster than the land around it.

Thats wild!

5G street lights anyone?

@djgh1412 Car-trails are the new chemtrails.

Holy cow, that’s awesome!

Yes happens on the east coast on i95 all the time. Has been happening fornyears. Hot blacktop releasing heat causing clouds to form. Also storms follow i95 often. What strikes me as odd tho is isn't Houston using concrete?

Maybe the Vortex Theory in NASCAR has some merit after all 🤔👀

@baugh_elliot Woah! @WxFront

@Christi37652402 could you measure the temperature of the concrete and humidity levels out there to see if there is a correlation?

Wow! Houston does have very big roads, but still - amazing.

I work near an airport and noticed that it would rain more there than other areas in Miami. I looked it up and apparently it is a well-documented phenomenon

Water vapor from millions of vehicles driving on wet roads while the sun starts to evaporate the water.

1/10-1/8 of vehicle exhaust is steam by volume. Looks like a particularly still morning so it's very plausible for that moisture to concentrate over highways in the morning.

Yes. Flying sailplanes I was told to find lift but too low to get under a cloud find a cloud just downwind of a 1 parking lot, 2 interstate, 3 dark field, and fly to a point on a straight line from the cloud down to the ground feature, a column of thermal lift connecting them.

@Trevino810Jon Wow, great find.

This further proves my theory that solar radiation in urban areas allows more updrafts and convection

@houstonairw Yeah, traffic sucked yesterday, today and tomorrow.

@CameronJNixon Innnnnteresting!