Wave-like clouds hover over parts of area

PITTSBURGH — How many of you took a look at the sky this morning and thought "What kind of clouds are those?" That's what Natalie asked our Scott Harbaugh on Twitter this morning.

They're called undulatus asperatus clouds or asperitas clouds and are a pretty new classification of clouds.  They were only officially classified in 2017 and are sometimes mistaken for mammatus clouds or those pouch-like clouds that hang down from the cloud base.  Asperitas clouds form when the atmosphere is just starting to destabilize and can be a pre-cursor to the possibility of thunderstorms during the spring and summer.  And we have severe thunderstorms in the forecast for late today and this evening.