CLOUDS come in all shapes and sizes, but occasionally they can leave you awestruck.
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Two Echuca-Moama residents recently photographed extraordinary cloud formations that were too good not to capture.
Moama's Michael Harrison took a photo of what looked like a "rolled up cloud" at dusk on February 14.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes when this amazing cloud appeared,” he said.
The photo was taken with his phone from his backyard in Riverpark Dve looking towards his neighbours’ houses.
“This view summed up our interesting weather patterns that we have been experiencing of late,” he said.
“The view also reminded me of Australian artists Jeffrey Smart and Reg Mombassa’s work. Both these artists captured the bringing together of the built environment with nature and prompted us to think about how we affect these conditions.”
Gail Campbell captured another unusual cloud formation on her iPhone on the corner of Barry and McKinlay streets on February 18.
“It looks like the clouds have been swept away,” she said.
The Echuca grandmother was on her way to pick up her grandchildren from school when she looked at the sky.
“I thought ‘Oh my gosh. It's like the clouds have been swept to the side.’ And it was like that the entire way around.”
Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster Tim Smith said the cloud formation Ms Campbell photographed looked like altocumulus and altostratus, commonly referred to as AcAs ("acc-ass") in the forecasting world.
“It looks like there is trough helping form the cloud, which is where two air masses are colliding and the less dense air rises over the more dense air, like oil and water,” he said.
“The two air masses could be different due to temperature (cold front) or moisture (dry line).
“When the less dense air (moist or warm) is lifted up over the more dense air (cold or dry) cloud starts to form, hence the sudden line of cloud. This phenomenon is very common in the atmosphere; however, to have the clean line with no other clouds in the sky is less common.”
Mr Smith said Mr Harrison's photo was of a roll cloud, quite often seen in the Gulf of Carpentaria and commonly known as Morning Glory.
“The dark cloud above looks like some unstable cumulus clouds and this roll cloud could possibly be formed due to shower or storm outflows, not super common in the southern parts of Australia, though as you make your way north they do become more common,” he said.