CLOUD FORMATION

[mak]

Saw this cloud formation this morning. Anyone any idea what will cause this?

[Morph]

Looks like a contrail from an aircraft at very high level. We see them often in the very early morning looking east from Cape Town. Especially just as the sun is coming up.

[mak]

Morph, my initial thought, but no aircraft in sight. This was actually a vertical formation with the bottom section very close to the ground.

[Morph]

These contrails can hang in the sky for quite a long time, depending on the upper level winds. The plane is far gone.

From the position of the sun and the time of day it looks like the trail is running north east to South West, could be an international from Europe heading for Cape Town direct and still at 33000feet

[slysi]

It's ET

[Arnulf]

Contrail.
If it suddenly stops, ie you don't see an aircraft at the end, the aircraft has either entered a dryer airmass, or it started to descent. If the aircraft enters a dry airmass, or starts to descent, it won't pull a contrail. The contrail can last for a long time.

Regards,
Arnulf