Weather
Stunning 'Fallstreak' Hole Opens Up On The Upper West Side: Photo
Upper West Siders who happened to look up Wednesday morning might have thought the second coming was upon us or aliens had finally arrived.
UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — Weather can be an incredible phenomenon. A giant hole in the sky opened up Wednesday morning on the Upper West Side.
Nilo Mitra snapped the photo from his apartment on Central Park West, near West 107th Street.
It is hard to look at the cloud formation and not think some sort of all-powerful force was descending onto the Earth.
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In reality, the vortex-like formation is known as a "fallstreak" hole, or hole-punch cloud.
Sam Maxwell also tweeted out a photo of the fallstreak hole hanging over the city on Wednesday.
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Great question… pic.twitter.com/c3A0yWB2GN
— Sam Maxwell (@THE_SamMaxwell) December 15, 2021
How do they form?
Fallstreak holes are composed of tiny water droplets that are colder than freezing but have not yet frozen.
According to the National Weather Service, these "supercooled" water droplets need a reason to freeze, which usually comes in the form of ice crystals getting introduced into the space.
"Once the ice crystals are introduced, the water droplet quickly freeze, grow and start to fall," reads a section on the National Weather Service's website. "A hole is left behind, which will start to expand outward as neighboring droplets start to freeze."
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