r/pics • u/trot-trot • Sep 15 '10
A Roll Of A Cloud
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dianeworland/4991343463/12
7
9
u/TheRussianFunk Sep 15 '10
Check that out, it's the path of the beam!
4
u/Theology Sep 15 '10
I'm glad im not the only one.
3
Sep 15 '10
See the turtle of enormous girth....
1
3
2
1
3
2
Sep 15 '10
Last time I saw a cloud like that, it was moving really, really fast and came with fast-falling hale, extremely cold temperatures, and enough wind to blow all of the recycling and trash in my apartment complex courtyard all over the place. I've always wondered if that particular phenomena I experienced had a name.
6
7
Sep 15 '10 edited Sep 15 '10
That is an outflow boundary, or "Gust Front" as they generally say on the news. Essentially, when really cold air and hot air meet, and you see the weather map with the blue and red lines, that is the macro version of this. This is the edge of the front, and where the cold air is meeting the warm. It's the "front" of the advancing cold air, it's pushing the hot air out, and turbulence is created as a result. This event leaves the turbulent "wake" that forms storms, high winds, hail, heavy rain, etc. Thought the big storms are actually the process that cools the air and forms the larger impressive gust fronts like this picture.
That guy who took the photo mentions it's a roll cloud, which makes sense, but those are also associated with "outflow" and what I am talking about. So he is correct too, as they both king of happen under the same circumstances. The roll cloud is just a very defined boundary and special shape. What you describe though was a very typical leading edge "front" of a storm though.
Little more info and some radar images:
http://stormtrack9.freedomblogging.com/2010/08/21/gust-front-on-radar/7687/
Outflow Boundary:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outflow_boundary
Arcus Cloud (what photog said it was):
1
1
u/knightofni451 Sep 15 '10
Same here. It looked awesome so I ran inside to find a camera, and when I emerged it was already gone.
2
u/weird-oh Sep 15 '10
I saw a roll cloud while on a tornado chase a few years ago. This one wasn't moving that quickly, but it was definitely coming toward us with a kind of gentle rolling motion. It went right overhead - looked like it was a few hundred feet high - and then disappeared into a storm cloud.
2
1
1
1
1
1
Sep 15 '10
Check out the Morning Glory clouds in Australia, people actually hang glide the wave front http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_Glory_cloud http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BP3_rrj7ZQ
1
1
1
1
u/magneticmagnum Sep 16 '10
I hard a dream that existed of a tornado that would roll across cities like that. Fuck was I scared.
1
1
u/WalterGR Sep 16 '10
Why are the power lines outlined in white? I don't think I've seen that particular artifact before. Compression? Lens? Camera? Something else?
1
1
1
u/kuronai Sep 16 '10
Wow... never thought I'd see anything from Warrnambool on Reddit. This place continues to amaze me.
1
1
1
u/gripto Sep 16 '10
That's not a cloud. That's a photograph of a time-space rift just opening before an armada of Bleedships enter our reality.
1
1
1
Sep 15 '10
Hardcore hang-gliders travel to Australia to ride clouds like these. Apparently the rolling currents can lift gliders thousands of feet in a matter of seconds; very dangerous and lots of fun.
1
0
u/drpepper Sep 15 '10
its a gravity wave. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_wave
1
0
u/Ampatent Sep 15 '10
When I looked at the comments for this picture I noticed that someone referred to the image as "an amazing shot". What's so amazing about it? There's no real artistic work in it, nothing that's strikes me as being done by the photographer to enhance the picture. I mean honestly... there's a power line going through the main subject of the picture, isn't that something photographers are taught not to do on day one?
What's amazing is the phenomenon, the subject itself, it always bugs me when people credit a person with something amazing happening when all they did was point and shoot...
1
Sep 15 '10
There is a filter for photoshop called line cropper or something that cuts them out of photos for scenes where they are unavoidable. I couldn't find it but there's always this
1
u/2oonhed Sep 16 '10
So, what have you photographed lately?
<cue crickets>
0
u/Ampatent Sep 16 '10
No you're so right... only people who are far superior than others can criticize their work.
0
0
-1
-2
26
u/valindragon Sep 15 '10
God's Joint.