Environment
A Weird Blob Over Alabama Turns Out to Be a Military Test
The stationary “cloud" was a controlled release of something called chaff.
On Wednesday afternoon weather radars detected a cloud near Huntsville, Alabama, hovering in place for hours. Its lethargy was odd, as was its existence, because the day was clear.
Was a microstorm absolutely raining buckets on a few unlucky families? The explanation might be just as weird for those who aren’t into military technology. Radars were actually picking up on a plume of chaff released over Redstone Arsenal, a large Army installation in northwest Alabama. When it fell to the ground, the stuff resembled little wads of metallic fluff, like steel-wool snowflakes.