Australia Weather News

A rare cloud formation, often called the morning glory, has rolled across outback Queensland delighting locals.

Michael Butler was home at Athol station, Blackall, on Saturday morning when he looked up and saw the cloud rolling across the sky.

The morning glory is often seen in the Gulf of Carpentaria in September but is almost never sighted over inland areas.

Mr Butler said in 16 years on his Blackall property, he had never witnessed anything like it.

"You see some unusual clouds in the storm season with the cold fronts but nothing like that," he said.

"This was just unusual, for being such a beautiful day, and this cloud just coming out of nowhere.

"I think it was more or less forming over us into a roll and it looked like a big wave ... it was huge."

Ashleigh Bielenberg was nearly 200 kilometres away when she looked up and saw the roll cloud in the distance.

Like Mr Butler, she immediately reached for her camera.

"It was like nothing you'd ever seen," she said.

"I worked up north for a while and you'd see stuff like that with the monsoon, but never out here."

Debbie Searles and her husband were driving from Barcaldine to Longreach when they saw the roll cloud.

She took a picture from a distance but said as they drove further they actually went right under it.

"It was even more impressive as we got closer and then [drove] under it," she said.

"Mother Nature always amazes me."

BOM forecaster says not to expect it again soon

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Gordon Banks said roll clouds were generally only seen in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

"Inland they'd be associated with a change of air mass, a wave coming through as it were, and in this case a gravity wave," he said.

"Something that is a little bit heavier than the surrounding air pushing into south-west Queensland from the south-east.

"If there's enough moisture in the turbulence that's caused by this wave coming through then it will generate a line of cloud.

"In this particular instance it was a beautiful one, well defined and nicely photographed if I may say so."

Mr Banks said he had never seen a roll cloud over inland Queensland but had seen one in north-west Australia.

"It's quite a startling phenomenon to see up close, especially if you notice it before it reaches you, you can watch it roll on through," he said.

"And you'll actually feel on the ground a change of air mass, a change of temperature or a rise in the wind from the direction the cloud is coming from.

"But I wouldn't expect to see another one any time soon."

ABC