Australia's 600-mile cloud pipe explained

This giant sky-tube looks wild, but here's what this weather really is

By Smartasaurus· 1 min read Curious

Picture a cloud six hundred miles long

Scale check

Gut call — how extreme does this actually get?

Reality tends to overshoot. Pick your ceiling.

The short version

This giant sky-tube looks wild, but here's what this weather really is
This isn't just a visual trick.
Even more bizarre, several of these rolls can appear at once, looking like a giant set of white pipes moving in sequence through a clear blue sky.

Pilots travel to Northern Australia just to surf a wave made of air. The Morning Glory cloud is a massive, tube-shaped roll that can reach 600 miles in length and travel at 40 miles per hour.

It forms in the Gulf of Carpentaria when sea breezes from the east and west collide. This creates a pressure wave that forces moisture up and cools it, while the back of the wave evaporates, making a cylinder that looks like it is rolling across the horizon.

This isn't just a visual trick. The cloud acts as a solid wall of air. Glider pilots can fly along the leading edge for hours, using the rising air to stay aloft without engines, much like a surfer rides a wave in the ocean.

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