People comparing 'UFO cloud' spotted in California to Nope movie

People think they’ve spotted a case of life imitating art, after seeing a cloud that looked like the mysterious alien life form from Nope.

A flying saucer-shaped cloud formation was spotted outside of Palm Springs in California, and it soon had social media users mystified.

Screenwriter Brian Lynch posted a picture on Twitter and later spoke to SFGATE about what he saw.

“It was hanging over us. … My kid (who has not seen Nope) thought it was really cool,” he said.

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Another person who witnessed the phenomenon was Dr. James Danoff-Burg, director of conservation at the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Palm Desert, said he was giving a tour when his group observed the cloud.

But while it might have looked like it was extra-terrestrial in nature, there was a much simpler explanation.

As Danoff-Burg explained to the publication, it was a lenticular cloud which is described as looking like “stacked pancakes.”

“That day was exceptional as we had one that was stacked three levels high – a rarity,” Danoff-Burg said. “They are really quite spectacular.”

It’s not the first time that clouds like this one have been spotted in the area, with meteorologist Cindy Palmer previously talking to the same publication about lenticular clouds.

"They form from the wind blowing across the mountains or the hills. ... You have to have a wind that's very uniform in one direction," Palmer told SFGATE. "As it's moving over the mountain and the way the air lifts, the moisture condenses and forms the clouds."

Horror-comedy Nope was one of the most high-profile film releases of 2020 and focuses on a UFO sighting near a ranch in the Californian desert.

The Jordan Peele-directed movie starred Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer and Steven Yeun.

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