Roll Cloud
December 19, 2005
Provided and copyright by: Dan Bush, Amateur Photographer/Astronomer
Summary authors & editors: Dan Bush; Jim Foster
The daunting roll cloud pictured above was taken from Albany, Missouri during the morning of June 10, 2005. Though perhaps not as threatening as they sometimes appear, roll clouds are associated with strong gusts from thunderstorm outflows -- they're completely detached from the parent cumulonimbus cloud. These tube shaped clouds roll about a horizontal axis but don't rapidly spin or rotate, as does a funnel cloud. This most impressive example, moving in a general west to east direction, was partially illuminated by the morning Sun.
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