One cool thing: Rush hour makes its own clouds

Social media was abuzz this week with satellite imagery purportedly showing clouds forming in the shape of Houston's highway system at sunrise Tuesday.

The big picture: Focusing on Houston, you can see clouds forming in line with the city's dartboard-looking web of freeway.

What they're saying: Andy McNeel, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Houston, tells Axios it is an example of the urban heat island effect.

• "Highway concrete will frequently store the overnight heat," McNeel says.
• "[That heat] then couples with heat from the morning traffic and triggers the formation of lift that then, with enough moisture in place, triggers the formation of those cumulus clouds," he added.

Cloud cover became spotty on Tuesday afternoon across the region before dissipating as the day went on, satellite imagery shows.

• "This is the first time that I personally have seen a satellite showing that phenomenon here in Houston," McNeel says.

The bottom line: "The right ingredients came together and caused that little phenomenon to pop up on the satellite."