At a Glance
- A U.S. Air Force fighter pilot filled the sky with ring contrails near Destin, Florida.
- The contrails resembled a large figure-eight and were visible on satellite imagery.
A United States Air Force fighter pilot grabbed the attention of skygazers along the Florida Panhandle Gulf Coast on Tuesday as a pair of ring contrails filled the sky near Destin.
The contrails were so well defined that they could be spotted on GOES-East satellite imagery just before noon Tuesday, as the National Weather Service in Tallahassee, Florida, pointed out in a tweet.
The NWS in Memphis, Tennessee, noted in a tweet that the larger contrail was 10 miles in diameter while the smaller one measured 8 miles across.
Contrails are lines of clouds comprised of ice crystals produced by exhaust from an aircraft engine, typically several miles above the Earth's surface. Water vapor from the engine exhaust condenses into these line-shaped clouds due to the low temperatures at aircraft cruise altitudes.
The contrails were visible from Destin, Panama City, Panama City Beach and Port St. Joe. Some may say the pattern resembled a large figure-eight.
This part of Florida was ravished by Hurricane Michael in October. Perhaps this U.S. Air Force fighter pilot was trying to spread some joy to local residents, who are still recovering from Michael's catastrophic Category 4 strike.
