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I saw this cloud forming about 4:45pm Oct 20 2008, and rushed home to get the camera, arriving back to this location at 5:15pm. The cloud was far enough away that i could not see it without a mile of treeless area, and this was the only place i found to see the stem of the mushroom. By 5:15pm, it had thinned out a lot, but it's still somewhat visable to the left of the power pole in the center of the pic below. No one else seemed to notice this massive amount of pollution, but then they never notice the little pollution either, they just breathe it in and complain to the doctor occasionally. At 4:45pm, the top was a hard edge with a slight dome in the center.
Another view, different location, no zoom.
Here's a slight closeup, you can see the shading difference from left of the pole to the clearer air to the right of it.
And another pic showing the stem of the cloud.
About 1.5 hours after i first saw the smoke cloud forming, you can see it has spread a good bit. The sun is setting, the time is 6:03pm, and the sunset is at 6:30pm. By now, anyone will tell you with "certainty" that this is a regular cloud, perhaps a storm cloud because it's darker than the others.
A little closeup, see, it's just a normal storm cloud, right?
By Kat , 2008