As heavy rains continue to lash Uttarakhand, a video showing the formation of a ‘shelf cloud’ in Haridwar has gone viral on social media. Garnering close to 1.9 lakh views on Twitter, the video shows a meteorological occurrence commonly known as a ‘shelf cloud’, or ‘arcus cloud’.
The footage, shared by Twitter user Anindya Singh, features clouds that resemble a majestic snow-covered mountain and has sparked curiosity about this extraordinary weather phenomenon.
However, The Hindu could not independently confirm the authenticity of the video.
What are shelf clouds?
Resembling a shelf hanging from the sky, a ‘shelf cloud’ is a wide, low cloud that appears before a big storm. Shelf clouds can be scary, but they usually don’t cause tornadoes or extremely dangerous weather on their own. They often appear ahead of powerful thunderstorms with heavy rain, strong winds, and occasionally hail or tornadoes.
The IMD said heavy to very heavy rainfall activity is likely to continue over Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Madhya Pradesh during the next two days and decrease thereafter.
The MeT department has issued an alert for heavy rains in 11 districts of Uttarakhand. State Police has appealed to the people to avoid travelling to the hills unless necessary.
(With PTI inputs)
