Roll Cloud Barrels Across Lake Michigan

June 22, 2016

MichRollCloud

June 2016 Viewer's ChoicePhotographer: Nick Nerbonne
Summary Authors: Nick Nerbonne; Jim Foster
 
Roll clouds are a type of arcus cloud that either form behind a gust front associated with a thunderstorm or in a gravity wave. These attention-getting clouds are especially conspicuous over water bodies as they roll downwind about their horizontal axis. Though menacing in appearance, they often pass with just a gust of wind and a change in wind direction, as was the case on this late spring day along the coast of Lake Michigan, in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Click here to see an animation of this cloud. Photo taken June 11, 2016. 

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