Triple punch hole clouds - Myrtle Beach, 2011

A section of cloud in Myrtle Beach has seen a triple punch hole phenomenon. It looks quite bizarre, and leaves people dumbfounded as to what could cause it.

To quote a resident of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina "I've lived by the sea for many years, but never seen anything like this" says Wesley Tyler, he continues saying "On Friday, January 7th, there were three punch hole clouds in the same place" as seen below:

Most people would jump straight to HAARP or something similar, but supposedly there is a scientific explanation for this phenomenon.

Recently meteorologists have penetrated the mystery: punch holes form when airplanes fly through thin layers of high altitude clouds. If water droplets in the cloud are supercooled (below freezing but still liquid), they can suddenly turn to snow when shocked by the passage of the plane. This mini-snowstorm occurs over a circular area much wider than the airplane itself.

Not all flights through banks of clouds will produce snow. According to Wired Magazine, only about 7.8 percent of the Earth’s surface is covered with clouds at the right elevation for supercooled droplets to form. Because jet aircraft don’t generally cruise at those altitudes, they may only form hole-punch clouds when they take off or land.

The apparition of three rare cloud-holes in one small area suggests a busy airspace around Myrtle Beach. Indeed, the Myrtle Beach International Airport is just miles from where the photo was taken. Or maybe punch hole clouds are a bit of a mystery after all.

Believe what you wish, some feel safer with the explanation above, some will still claim HAARP. The thing is, we'd never really know.