By Dean Murray via SWNS
A bizarre, UFO-like ‘pet’ cloud has reappeared over New Zealand.
The so-called ‘Taieri Pet’ was first documented in the 1890s when it was mentioned in local newspapers.
The unique, elongated cloud forms over the Otago region of the country’s South Island and is a product of the region’s weather patterns and topography.
NASA’s Landsat 8 satellite snapped the phenomenon on 7 September, with the U.S. space agency calling it “otherworldly”.
An archive aerial photograph from 1951 shows the cloud towering into the sky above the rural region.
Local news outlet Otago Daily Times said: “It is understood it has been called the Taieri Pet for more than 100 years by locals, who feel it is their own pet cloud because it only appears in their area.”
John Law, a MetService meteorologist, said: ““The Taieri Pet is a common feature found in the skies near Middlemarch, Otago.
“The appearance of the Taieri Pet is a great indicator of strong winds high in the atmosphere.
“Here, strong winds from the northwest pour over the steep-sided, flat-topped Rock and Pillar Range, which runs almost perpendicular to those prevailing winds.
“As the cloud forms on the crest of this wave, it remains almost stationary in the sky and is shaped by the strong winds blowing through it.”
NASA adds: “Lenticular clouds form when prevailing winds encounter a topographic barrier, such as a mountain range. Wind that is forced to flow up and over the mountains creates a kind of wave in the atmosphere.
“Ground-based and airborne observers have described them as a “huge stack of pancakes” or a “pile of plates” that seem to hover in one place.”
