Mount Fuji is often surrounded by lenticular clouds.
Lenticular clouds are individual clouds that typically form around hills and mountains as a result of the way air moves. These clouds look quite distinct, like giant flying saucers or something like lopsided stacks of pancakes. Many famous mountains around the world are often photographed with a layer of these clouds, including Mount Shasta and Mount Fuji.
You can also hear these clouds called altocumular lenticular standing up. They form when a current of moist air is forced upward as it passes through a mountain, causing the moisture to condense and form a cloud. Sometimes the air is forced into a wave pattern, creating what is known as a wave cloud. Wave clouds can look like chains of disks stretching up the lee side of the mountain. They can also form miniature waves that sometimes look exactly like a rough sea.
One interesting thing about lenticular clouds is that they appear to be perfectly stationary and frozen in time. This is not, in fact, the case. These clouds appear stationary because moist airflow continually replenishes the cloud on the windward side, even as the water evaporates and disappears on the leeward side. These clouds can appear to float for hours or days, until the wind or weather changes and the cloud disperses.
Observing and identifying lenticular clouds is usually quite easy, because clouds are so different. If you’ve ever seen a cloud that looks like a flying saucer, a lens or a giant beret, you’re looking at a lenticular cloud. If you look around the cloud, you can see a geographic feature that is creating the conditions that are conducive to the formation of these clouds. If you don’t see a mountain or hill, there is probably an air current rushing in the opposite direction to create a wave cloud.
Many people like to photograph lenticular clouds because they look unusual and can be quite impressive. If you live near a mountain that is often surrounded by a lenticular cloud, you may find it interesting to photograph it every day, observing how the cloud moves and changes over time. After a few years, you will be able to make weather forecasts based on cloud presence, position, and shape.