Eerie ‘UFO cloud’ shocks Brits as rare phenomenon lurks over UK town for 10 minutes before disappearing
A MYSTERIOUS cloud shaped just like an alien spaceship has been spotted hovering over the UK.
The strange sighting has been likened by onlookers to something out of sci-fi horror movie Nope, in which humans are sucked up and eaten by an otherworldly monster.
But the cloud isn’t anything sinister.
It’s actually a rare phenomenon known as a lenticular cloud.
Civil servant Dave Pickett, 38, and his son Blake, 7, snapped the moment before it quickly disappeared as it flew above Greenfield, near Oldham in Greater Manchester on Friday.
“We agreed it looked like a spaceship,” he said.
“It wasn’t the same ten minutes later, when the sky lost its colour as the sun was rising.
“I got lucky and had my phone to hand.”
He added: “I’d never seen anything like it.
“A friend commented that it was a lenticular cloud, I had never heard of it.
“It reminded me of Nope. A cloud-looking UFO which turned out to be a big balloon thing.”
Lenticular clouds usually fly between 6,500 to 16,500 ft off the ground.
They can appear in the sky if a series of events with air and mountains occurs.
When winds encounter a mountain it can create a train of large standing waves in the air downstream.
If there is sufficient moisture in the air, the rising motion of the wave will cause water vapour to condense, which causes lenticular clouds to appear.
They’re believed to be one of the most common explanation for UFO sightings, according to the Met Office.
Pilots usually avoid flying near them in possible as they can result in increased turbulence.