Smoke Rings

The rightmost photo is Mt. St. Helens; the leftmost is Mt. McKinley (Denali). As usual, click on the photo for a larger version.

From Jim Mundy:

Not many of you get to see this, unless you live near there — Mt. St. Helens at sunrise.

Mt. St. Helens continues to spew ash, while it is forming a lava dome in the crater and still having minor tremors.

Here in this sunrise shot, she appears to be blowing smoke rings (and anything so benign is welcomed, given recent history).

What forms the “smoke rings” is the air flowing over the mountain getting pushed up higher as it goes up and over the top. The moisture content and initial temperature are just right so that the moisture condenses from a vapor to small particles at the higher altitude. When the moving air moves past the peak and comes down again, the particles evaporate back to an invisible vapor.

The two “pancakes” describe that there are two layers of air for which this is happening, thus making this awesome picture possible.