Location Muenchen (Munich),  Germany . Date 17. July 2009 07:20 CEST
To the courtesy of Dr. Robert Goler Meteorologisches Institut München (web camera picture).

Morning Glory Type Cloud in Germany

Introduction

In July ,17, 2009 I heard a short report in BR5 news  in my car radio about a rare cloud phenomena in  the south of Germany. Immediately I had a look at the Bayerischer Rundfunk website . I found an article named Seltene Wolke walzt über Bayern hinweg, I translate :

 "A Rare Cloud rolls over Bavaria
 Friday morning, 7:18 [MEST] : A thick, grey roll appears on the horizon of Munich and rolls in breathtaking speed over the town and forward over Bavaria.We asked our Meteorologist were this Roll Cloud came from, and what is so special with it.
....
The spetacular grey roll was a so called "Roll Cloud", we call it [in Germany] also "
Böenwolke" or Wolkenwalze. It is typical for this type of cloud, that it seems to rotate about a horizontal axis, completely isolated from other clouds ( see Bayerischer Rundfunk picture ).
.......
Roll clouds develop out of a thunderstorm front like that  approaching Baden Wuerttemberg and Bavaria on Friday. When suddenly precipitaion begins in the original storm cloud the air masses are cooled so heavily that they descend . Thereby they lift the warm and humid air masses which approach the thunderstorm. A rolling motion occurs with extreme thermals and the cloud starts to roll "

Interestingly in a similar report   of the newspaper Muenchner Merkur  this cloud phenomena is called a  "Morning Glory" . I translate:

" A Rare Cloud rolls over Bavaria [!] 
A cloud fascinates Bavaria. On Friday morning a "Morning Glory" could be seen in he sky, a very rare Cloud phemomena, that is found
mainly in Australia."

I was a bit surprised, that this event until now ( 22 July )was not treated in German weather forums or meteological websites in more detail. At least just when I wrote this I found this article Morning Glory in Wetter24 website dated 22.07.06:16.

So I decided to do some own research and by this occasion started my Clouds website, which has been planned for years.

First goal is to gather all available photographs of this July, 17 , 2009 event in southern Germany. That implies to get the permission from the photographers to publish the pictures here.

To get an idea what type of cloud(s) actually have been observed I think it is necessary to compile all these pictures and information iand put it in one place, which will not be changed resp. forgotten like in media websites and forums.

As well I try to gather scientific information about roll clouds as well as pictures from Australian Morning Glories and other roll clouds from all over the world to have a comparison.

My own interpretation as for now is, that this cloud is of the Mornig Glory type [ Clarke (1981), Christie(1978), dropbears.com, Rob´s Homepage] caused by very large individual waves of air (solitary waves) and not a roll cloud closely related to a cumulunimbus cloud in a local thunderstorm [ Ahrens (2008) and the BR report left. But I suggest to restrict the name Morning Glory to the Australian variety.
Roll cloud originating from mountain-generated waves are decribed in Scorer (1972).
[cjk 22-07.2009]

Collection of links to July, 17 pictures taken in southern Germany.

Contact to the copyright holders has just started.

A list of references is given below

References

Books and Magazines
   
Ahrens (2008) Ahrens, Donald C.
Essentials of Meteorology.
Belmont: Thomson Learning, 2008 .5th edition
 
Clarke (1981) R.H. Clarke, R.K. Smith, and D.G. Reid
Monthly Weather Review
Volume 109, Issue 8 (August 1981) pp. 1726–1750
The Morning Glory of the Gulf of Carpentaria: An Atmospheric Undular Bore
Christie(1978) D. R. Christie, K. J. Muirhead, and A. L. Hales
Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences
Volume 35, Issue 5 (May 1978) pp. 805–825
On Solitary Waves in the Atmosphere
  Goler, R. A., and M. J. Reeder, 2004: , J. Atmos Sci., 61, 1360-1376 "The generation of the morning glory"
  Goler, R. A., M. J. Reeder, R. K. Smith, H. Richter, S. Arnup, T. Keenan, P. May, and J. Hacker, 2006:  Mon. Wea. Rev., 134, 3092-3108. Low-level convergence lines over North-eastern Australia. Part I: The North Australian cloud line
  Goler, R. A., 2009, , Mon. Wea. Rev., 137, 2632-2645. Eastward Propagating Undular Bores over Cape York Peninsula
Scorer (1972) Scorer, Richard
Clouds of the World
Newton Abbot : David&Charles, 1972
Melbourne: Lothian, 1972
General Information and pictures about wave clouds
Websites
  American Meteorological Society Journal > Advanced Search
  The Cloud Appreciation Society The Morning Glory http://cloudappreciationsociety.org/mg1/
Movies of the Morning Glory Cloud
http://cloudappreciationsociety.org/mgmoreinfo
  dropbears.com The Morning Glory of the Gulf of Carpentaria
Douglas Christie and Russell White
First published AOPA January 1995
  dropbears.com Morning Glory Articles
  Google Pictures "roll cloud"
  Morning Glory Cloud http://www.morningglorycloud.com/
  Rob´s Homepage

Morning Glories and North Australian Squall Lines

  

Page started : 18 July 2009
Revised last:
Author: C.J.K.
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