Stunning “Tsunami Cloud” Sweeps Through Australia

Earlier this month, a “cloud tsunami” swept across the skies of New South Wales, Australia.

Also known as a ‘shelf cloud’, it was spotted by beachgoers as the enormous wave cloud expanded across the sky.

These mighty formations are as dangerous as they are beautiful, known to be accompanied by heavy rainfall, gale force winds, flash flooding, and large hailstones. Forecaster Christopher Webb offered a brief explanation to the daily telegraph as to how clouds such as this are formed:

“The shelf cloud is created by a cold outflow from a thunderstorm lifting the moist air very abruptly, it is an outflow feature from a thunderstorm. When the rain from the thunderstorm comes vertically down it drags the air with it, it spreads horizontally and forms a gust front, you get the humid air being lifted abruptly from the outflow of the thunderstorm.”

Check out the stunning photos below!