Storms bring interesting clouds

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - Report!t pictures flooded in Thursday of interesting clouds following the much needed rain that fell throughout the area Thursday.

Luckily, there weren't many pictures of damage, but we received dozens of pictures of the interesting clouds that moved in ahead of the line of storms

Chief Meteorologist Chad Evans describes the structure as a shelf cloud.

"As the cold air sinks ahead of the line the warm air's kind of thrust up over it," Chief Meteorologist Chad Evans said. "As that happens, it creates a rolling effect and essentially you have cold air underneath with warm air rolling on to top of it and it creates this roll or shelf cloud that rolls out ahead of the line of storms."

When you see a shelf cloud as well-defined as the one we saw Thursday, it's likely there will be rather strong winds when the storms hit which means you should head indoors immediately.

Little damage was reported around the area, but here in the NewsChannel 18  parking lot, a large limb fell. On Kossuth Street in Lafayette, Teri Trent saw a limb of about the same size knocked down from the gusty winds.

Remember, when you see it happen, Report!t.