File:Cloud streets in the Sea of Okhotsk (MODIS 2018-01-23).jpg

English: In Siberia, in mid-January, daylight shortens while temperatures plummet, dropping to deeply below-zero in much of the region – for example, the average winter low registers about -58°F (°C) in Oymyakon, a town in Sakha Republic. The opening weeks of 2018 brought a ferocious cold snap which plunged temperatures even lower across the region. According to news reports, temperatures in Oymyakon dropped as low as -88°F (-66.7°C) and Yakutsk, a city lying further south and east, registered -58°F (-50°C). Temperatures that frigid have been known to freeze eyelashes, turn saliva into icy needles, stall car batteries, and transform pipes into solid fixtures within minutes. When combined with strong winds and blown over the ocean, such frigid temperatures also create stunning designs in the clouds.

NASA’s Aqua satellite flew over eastern Siberia on January 16, 2018, allowing the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard to acquire a true-color image of the region of in the midst of the ferocious cold snap. The land is covered in a blanket of snow and long parallel rows of cloud have formed over the Sea of Okhotsk.

These rows of cloud, known as “cloud streets” form as cold, dry air from the land blows across relatively warmer, much moister ocean water and create cylinders of spinning air. Where the air is rising, small clouds form. Where the air is descending, the skies are clear. The cloud streets align along the direction of the wind movement.