Did you see clouds ‘touching the ground’ today? It’s ‘shelf cloud mania’ on the MS Coast.
They appear long, moody and almost as if they’re falling from the sky and touching the ground.
And residents saw them seize the skies across the Mississippi Coast Tuesday morning and snapped photos from their front porches or on their daily commutes.
Low-hanging shelf clouds formed in Diamondhead, Bay St. Louis and Stennis Space Center, mesmerizing the Coast as a storm moves into the area.
“Incredibly moisture laden atmosphere contributing to very low hanging shelf clouds with “scud” clouds nearly condensing all the way to the ground!” Scott Pilié, a Weather Channel meteorologist who once worked in New Orleans, said on Facebook.
Pilié, who called the event “shelf cloud mania,” said the clouds will be seen in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on Tuesday.
“A shelf cloud will usually be associated with a solid line of storms,” according to the National Weather Service. “The wind will come first with rain following behind it. It may appear to rotate on a horizontal axis.”
Scud clouds, the NWS said, “are just rising clouds due to increased low level relative humidity. They will not rotate and will rise slowly.”
This story was originally published August 2, 2022 at 9:58 AM.
