A large fraction of thick, layered clouds are electrified and could provide the right environment for commercial aircraft and even small private planes to trigger lightning bolts, Dr. Krider said.

Then they were gone, in the blink of an eye, and there was only Ardmore sitting cozily under the layered, gray-edged clouds.

Sheets of thinly layered cloud passed, now and again, across the face of the sun, causing brief shadows to dance like ghosts across the wide lawn.

As they left the plasma storm, the dense layered clouds misted over the viewscreen.

In the light of the full moon lighting our climb, we can look down on the lofty peaks of Kenya's mountains poking up through layered clouds in the far distance.

But we were more impressed by the perfect lines of the adjacent whitewashed keeper's house, now a quirky local history museum, set almost seamlessly against the low, layered clouds.

There was a bite to the air, and the layered clouds to the west promised rain before nightfall.

They seemed to be approaching some layered clouds.

Tall, arched windows led onto an unrailed balcony, and beyond it the layered clouds streamed like a river in flood.