Cloud formations like those pictured above happen in real life. They're uncommon on Earth, but are ubiquitous on the outer gas giant planets, and are driven by velocity shear between dissimilar fluids or streams within a fluid. This results in an instability that was first described by Kelvin and Helmholtz, and you can read more about it here:
Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability
As interesting as the fluid dynamics aspect of this is, the real reason I'm posting this is an excuse to route people to pictures of pretty clouds and computer models. Seriously, run the numerical simulation video at the Wikipedia page. Your retinas will be glad you did.
Sometimes the universe is just pretty.
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