Lennie the Cat

The cat who has been living outside, fed and watered by me, has been named Lennie (not Lenny).

A lennie is a lenticular cloud that forms at great altitude a few miles downwind from a mountain peak or ridge, generally in winter, when the air is stable and the wind is blowing with a velocity that increases with altitude. I think the wind needs to be blowing at least 25 knots at mountain-top level. This happens when the jet stream is right over Colorado. The lennie marks the high point in the mountain wave, as the air springs back up after it first goes down in crossing the mountain.

We glider pilots are concerned with getting into the wave downwind from the mountain, but just upwind from the lennie. This is where the air is rising and forming the lennie. It's exacty where you want to be in a glider, oxygen mask in place.

The mountain wave is very powerful--the most powerful thing I've encountered in nature (I've not seen a tornado), so I named this new cat accordingly.