Thunderhead Over New South Wales

January 07, 2008

7_july_07_hawks_nest_5_018a

Provided and copyright by: Phillip Lachman
Summary authors & editors: Phillip Lachman

Late in the afternoon on July 7, 2007, I observed this looming thunderhead over Hawks Nest beach, on the mid-north coast of New South Wales, Australia. Its anvil shape, illuminated by the low Sun behind the camera, shows that this is a mature cumulonimbus cloud. When the top of a rising storm cloud reaches the tropopause (boundary of the troposphere and stratosphere), it flattens out, due to the strong winds that occur there, resulting in the characteristic anvil shape.