Discover Yahoo! With Your Friends

Explore news, videos, and much more based on what your friends are reading and watching. Publish your own activity and retain full control.

To get started, first

YOUR FRIENDS' ACTIVITY

    Amazing ‘tsunami cloud’ hits Florida coastline

    At first glance, it looks as though a tsunami wave is about to crash into a swathe of high-rise tower blocks.

    But for beachgoers and surfers alike along Panama City Beach, Florida, there was no need to panic, the giant wave was just a curious illusion caused by harmless sea fog rolling off the Gulf of Mexico.

    The tsunami-like clouds are just a harmless weather phenomenon. Photo: Splashnews
    So what’s the science behind the captivating photograph taken from a helicopter earlier this month?

    This ‘tsunami cloud’ effect is believed to be caused by a phenomenon known as the ‘Kelvin–Helmholtz instability’ that can occur in both air and water.



    This is when a fast-moving layer of fluid or air washes over a slower, thicker layer – creating the wispy wave effect.

    According to helicopter pilot JR Hott, the clouds appear a few times a year but normally further down the coast.

    Mr Hott wrote: "When the temperature, humidity and winds are just right, we'll get this fog that forms on the high rise condos on the beach.”

    He added: “The event, while it can form quickly, moves gently and slowly. It isn't something that happens with more than a gentle breeze.”

     
    • Whoo  •  3 months ago
      There is nothing so good, or as unpredictable, as good old mother nature !!
      • Jack 3 months ago
        stupid comment, "Good old Mother nature" will wipe us all out one day
      • Shuffle 3 months ago
        So true... and Jack, I think that's the point Whoo is getting at. Who's stupid now?
      • Taffy 3 months ago
        Jack, Jack went off track
        Perhaps he comes from Iraq
        And wears an orange anorak
        Now there’s no turning back
        Jack, Jack you went off track
        No one really gives a light
        Ha! Ha! Ha!
    • TERRY H  •  London, England  •  3 months ago
      Cool. Yet again nature produces a phenomenon with dramatic effects which surprise and amaze us.
    • robin y  •  Manila, Philippines  •  3 months ago
      what a beautiful photograph,,,,,,,,,,nature is amazing
    • Paulos  •  San Francisco, United States  •  3 months ago
      Strange how an article on a weather phenomenon can provoke racism and conspiracy theories, some people on here need to get a grip!
      • Chris 3 months ago
        Or, preferably, get someone else to get a grip round their throats.
      • Just Mike 3 months ago
        Coming from the land that (probably) invented both racism and conspiracy theories that's pretty rich. However, you're right. but hey it give the bored something to do eh! ::-)
      • Kathryn Brandy 3 months ago
        ^ I'm astonished at the length of these comments on a picture of sea mist. And for the record- the US didn't "invent" racism...the slave trade was ancient and in full swing as early as 2000 BCE across the globe. Racism and the idea of the "lesser humans" was also propagated by the British as late as the 1960's- when they were still measuring the heads of black Africans to determine if their brains were genetically smaller than the white man's. ---I really need to stop reading these comments!!! I'm getting so angry!
    • Francis  •  3 months ago
      this one should have been in those winners and runner up photos of last week , lovely shot !!
    • MICHAEL  •  Southampton, England  •  3 months ago
      WOW ! what a picture.
      • Maximus 3 months ago
        Rum tiddely um tum um tum tum stick it in yer family al bum!!
      • stanssoapbox 3 months ago
        Tommy Steel.
      • KMA 3 months ago
        what a photograph!
    • Ruth  •  London, England  •  3 months ago
      Great photo! I've seen this effect on the Mersey too... and rolling up Welsh valleys and across the clifftops in Cornwall. Just fast-moving fog clouds, but great to watch.
      • old man 3 months ago
        is that Ruth from Dartford?
      • sasha 3 months ago
        Totally agree ruth, live by the sea in cornwall.
      • Aquila 3 months ago
        yes, instead of gently rolling in it#$%$ the high rises and having to go up over.
    • SIBBY FENWICK  •  Birmingham, England  •  3 months ago
      Mother natures wonders to perform.
    • sasha  •  Middlesbrough, England  •  3 months ago
      Cornwall looks the same at 6.00am in the summer.
      • john 3 months ago
        does it? lived here for 15 years, never seen it
      • I will be back! 3 months ago
        Been every year for the past 40 years and never seen it either.
      • kenny 3 months ago
        or me, oi think you are speaking pish. the only fog oi see in coooornwall is after having several gaaaaallons of the fine aaales.....oooarrr
    • Donkey whalloper  •  Cambridge, England  •  3 months ago
      Great photo. Would't want to live in the foreground seashore houses though if a real
      Tsunami was on the cards.
    • PETE  •  Hull, England  •  3 months ago
      That's the worst case of rising damp I've ever seen.
    • Roy  •  Ballynahinch, Northern Ireland  •  3 months ago
      Well done that photographer. Moment in time captured to keep!!
    • Trotski  •  3 months ago
      Can anyone see Pamela Landy on the fourth high rise back, eight floors up -centre right? -She look's very tired. She needs some sleep.
    • Kathryn Brandy  •  3 months ago
      I agree with Paulos below me. I am from the US and have also lived in PCB-- and secondly- nothing irritates me more than people who make comments on articles(especially ignorant/racist ones) and can't even write in correct English. If you have the capacity to find this article online, then you can also find a grammatical source that you can utilize to fix your horrible language skills. And who doesn't have spell-check??? There= place, Their= possessive, They're=they are. It's not that complicated. Sorry for venting.
    • Grumpy old sod.  •  London, England  •  3 months ago
      Does this mean that the sea fog rises as it reaches the warmth of the land and gets caught in the vortex created behind the highrise buildings hence the swirl phenonomen? ( pity I can't spell).
    • Steve  •  Manchester, England  •  3 months ago
      Just wait until you see that Island in the Canary's slip into the Atlantic and cause a Tsumami 100ft high hitting the East Coast from the Keys to Carolina's ,you think it can't happen ,well it's a volicanic island and there is a fault line about 5 miles long just waiting to go and there is nothing we can do except keep on high ground with an 8 hour warning!
    • EDWARD  •  3 months ago
      All the dooms day profasisers will be out in force now. And yes, i know i cant spell. So shoot me.
    • Lisa  •  London, England  •  3 months ago
      What a great picture..
    • Terry Moore  •  Swaffham, England  •  3 months ago
      I used to live in Panama City Beach,Florida and made some very good friends there so I don't really appreciate the comment made by CHOCOL8 who obviously is trying to show just how much that he ( or she ) doesn't like the Americans. How on earth could anyone wish aTsunami to hit anywhere on this planet ?
    • Harold  •  Cardiff, Wales  •  3 months ago
      Anyone who holidays in Gibraltar would recognise this as quite mild. The Levant cloud that forms there is just like this, but more dramatic, the Rock having a larger surface area. And to stand at the top of the Rock with the Levanter flowing over is something quite magical.
    POLL
    Loading...
    Poll Choice Options