The Morning Glory Clouds
On spring mornings over a small Australian town, a single cloud up to 1,000 km long rolls in from the sea like a giant tube.
What was reported
Near Burketown, in the remote Gulf Country of northern Australia, a spectacular cloud appears on some mornings between September and November: a long, rolling tube of cloud that can stretch for hundreds of kilometres, sometimes in several parallel bands, moving in from the Gulf of Carpentaria at dawn.
Aboriginal people of the region have long known it. Today, glider pilots travel from around the world to ride the rising air on its front edge, like surfers on a wave.
Explanations offered
Scientists explain it as a kind of atmospheric wave. When sea breezes from opposite sides of the Cape York Peninsula collide overnight, they create a wave in a layer of cool, moist air, and cloud forms along its crest. Morning glory clouds appear elsewhere, but are most regular here.
- When
- Most years, September to November
- Where
- Burketown, Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland, Australia
- Witnesses
- Locals, glider pilots and scientists
- Status
- Explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.