Bizarre 'Roll Cloud' Seen Over Texas Today

Reaganite Republican ^ | May 31, 2012 | Reaganite Republican

[Reaganite Republican]

This is pretty wild...

A phenomenon known as a 'roll cloud' -a very rare form of Arcus cloud- was seen in eastern Texas early this morning...
it's formed when a cool outflow of air from a substantial thunderstorm jets-out ahead of the system in a rotating rope that can run 50 miles long...

More at Reaganite Republican

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KTLV-TV   Wikipedia  h/t Doug Welch

[The Cajun]

Have same them before, the color contrast is awesome.
You just know things are fixing to get a little *airish* and wet, LOL.

[Liberty Valance]

bttt

[WestwardHo]

We had a small roll cloud come through shooting lightning out the front. It looked like a battle ship. Really neat.

[Dutch Boy]

It could be climate change. I’m sure Bush, Th Koch brothers or Rush had something to do with it. I’ll be this is all a trick to keep democrat voters disenfranchised.

[jboot]

I've seen these several times over the years, most recently in Virginia in 2007. It's a boundary layer effect along a gust front that can extend miles away from the parent storm and persist even after the storm dissipates.

The time I saw it in VA the knuckleheads on local radio were reporting it to be a tornado.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Thanks for posting the pictures. I’ve never seen such a thing!

[backspace]

I don't know why but Roll Clouds make me hungry.

[AZLiberty]

Sometimes a cloud is just a cloud.

[Noumenon]

This...

[AceMineral]

Saw one a couple years ago as it slowly moved overhead. It was a slowly rotating hollow tube several miles long. Very impressive.

[SuziQ]

Whoa! That’s cool and creepy!

[DallasDeb]

I wonder if this guy knows how ridiculous he looks. I thought he was a parody of the Aliens show. I noticed, although he was wearing the same clothese during the various comments he made, sometimes his hair was pulled out more than other times.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Hmmm...was it hiding a 15 mile wide alien ship?

[Noumenon]

Thing about ‘ol Georgio is that he’s got a shtick that he’s managed to parlay into a nice living. Chick magnet? I’m guessing not so much.

I mean, how do you sit without laughing uncontrollably, across the dinner table from someone who looks like they’ve got a predilection for putting their fingers into electric sockets?

[Sirius Lee]

Now I know what's inside that roll cloud.

Creamy nougat.

[Rightly Biased]

cool

[lentulusgracchus]

Flew through one of those once in a Piper Seneca, back in about 1995, right over east Houston, coming back from the field. Very scary to look at but the pilot knew what he was doing. We flew into it and got a lifting feeling, like an elevator, and then a sinking, and then we were out of it and in heavy rain.

Fascinating, as Leonard Nimoy would say.

[Revolting cat!]

In Texas? Bush’s fault!

[dragnet2]

See all the cameras on the intersection light supports.