mackerel skies
Scaly cloud pattern
Mackerel skies are cloud formations of small, rippled altocumulus or cirrocumulus clouds resembling the mottled pattern on a mackerel's back.
The pattern often signals changing weather, captured in the folk rhyme "Mackerel skies and mares' tails make tall ships carry low sails." We watched the mackerel skies roll in from the west.
- cloudsAirborne water masses
- cirrusHigh wispy ice formation
- mare's tailsWispy high-altitude clouds
- flecksSmall spots or particles
- whiteAbsence of pigment
cotton balls · weather · old wives' tale · mottled · patchwork · scales · stratus · horizons · nautical · pattern · veil · streaks · wisps · scattered · ripples · blue · sunsets · high
sky appearance/cloud formation
mackerel skiesclear skies
Absence of cloud cover
blue skies · storm clouds · overcast · cumulonimbus · thunderheads