Rare cloud pictures captured on hills

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Nick Sturdy said he had only recently got back into photography
By Eleanor Lawson
BBC News, West Midlands

An amateur photographer has captured a rare weather phenomenon from the top of the Malvern Hills in Worcestershire.

The images show frosty peaks emerging from a blanket of clouds with blue sky above them.

These are cloud inversions, otherwise known as temperature inversions.

They occur when temperatures near the ground are lower than temperatures higher in the air, which is opposite to what normally occurs.

“While it may have been grey and foggy in Worcester, there was this great spectacle just a few miles down the road,” said Nick Sturdy, a resident of the city, who took the pictures.

The cloud inversions as seen from the Malvern Hills
Mr Sturdy had a spectacular view from the Worcestershire Beacon

Mr Sturdy explained: “I’ve just recently got back into photography. I try to share a picture a day on my Instagram.

“I was saying to a friend only on Friday night how it would be good to go up the Malvern Hills when there was a cloud inversion.

“I happened to see someone had posted a picture of a sunrise there on Saturday morning and so packed the camera and headed there straight away.”

He said: “I parked at the Wyche Cutting and walked to the Worcestershire Beacon and back, taking over 300 photos en route.”

The photos were taken on Saturday 2 December
Nick Sturdy took more than 300 photos of the cloud inversions

Mr Sturdy’s photos show dense clouds cloaking the countryside of Worcestershire, Herefordshire, and northern Gloucestershire.

“I was so glad I had made the journey that morning, though the pictures – as happy as I am with them – don’t do the feeling I had of being there any justice,” he said.

If you want to share great photos with us, visit BBC Weather Watchers

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