YOUR PIX: The cloud that ate Port Washington

Not really—it just looked like a creature that could munch on the city. It was a shelf cloud that brought strong wind followed by heavy rain on June 27. This terrific shot of the menacing cloud was taken by Ozaukee Press reader Barb Olson. She explained: “I was enjoying some me-time in Coal Dock Park, sitting on a bench and loving the cooler weather. When it seemed the weather was turning, I turned around to leave and the sky was amazing—and quite scary!” The same word—scary—was used in the YOUR PIX feature last week to describe another photo of the same cloud, which was misidentified as a wall cloud.
Scott Ziegler, director of the Ozaukee County Sheriffs Office emergency management division, studied the picture and determined that the cloud “was definitely not a wall cloud,” but instead a shelf cloud with a gust front. Shelf clouds and wall clouds look pretty much alike, but weather experts know that the latter are much larger. And judging from Barb Olson’s photo, shelf clouds look scarier.