Skyfog

A great summary of optical phenomena one might find in the sky!

Horseshoe Vortex! Spotted over Jersey City Heights as the rainy weather we’d had all day rolled away. Low in the sky, undulating slowly and spinning on both ends, this little guy was gone almost as fast as I could get out my phone! Almost as rare as they come.

For the record, the majority of these clouds are cumulus.

Nenad Saljic has taken some incredible time-lapse photographs of Matterhorn at night... the cloud arrangements you'll find in his portfolio are breathtaking! (click on photo to view his collection)

Sundog (20) - As the sun was getting closer to the horizon, I noticed the rainbow-colored bright spot left of the sun, a sundog! Sundogs are 22ª refracted light from ice clouds high in the sky (Cirrus).

Rainbow (15 + 15 for secondary bow) - By far the most well-defined rainbow I've ever seen, complete with secondary bow, Alexander's Dark Band (between the two bows), and several supernumerary bows just inside the primary bow (difficult to see in this image). 

Altocumulus Lenticularis (45 + 25 for rare pile d'assiettes) - Strange little UFO-shaped clouds, normally formed when a moist airstream flows over raised ground, cooling as it does. Notice the [subtle] layers in several of these formations, due to alternating moist/dry air layers.

Cumulus Congestus, Mediocris, Fractus and Humilis (15 + 15 for all four species) - Developing storm clouds from my window, lots of shapes and sizes. Notice the tops of larger cumulus congestus rising in the distance.

Cirrus Spissatus (20) - Thick for a cirrus; looks to be in the process of dissipating. 

Cirrocumulus Undulatus (40) - A wavy composition, miles high.

Altocumulus Undulatus (20) - Probably the most wavy cloud cover I've seen!

Crepuscular Rays in Altocumulus (20) - Rays of sunshine!

Stratocumuls Undulatus (20) - On the right side, wavy.

Cirrus (20) - High in the sky, typical formation.

Altocumulus "Pancake" (30 + ? for new variety) - This formation seemed very smooth and flat, couldn't identify a specific variety or species.