A BoM meteorologist has shared his thoughts after the South Coast witnessed deep menacing clouds contrasted by vivid blue skies on Saturday, June 29.
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Meteorologist for the Bureau of Meteorology, Jiwon Park, said they were altostratus clouds, and while they looked dark and thunderous, their wave pattern usually did not mean rain.
"It looks a bit like a shelf cloud from a storm, but they are not storm clouds, although they look similar," Mr Park said.
"North-westerly winds ahead of a cold front, and the north-westerly winds impeding on the Snowy Mountains created these mountain waves. These clouds seem to have originated from these wave activities."
While mountain waves are a common occurrence across the Snowy Mountain ranges and south east coast of NSW, Mr Park said the shape and extent of the cloud depended on the moisture and these shaped clouds were "probably not" common in the area.
In Tathra, photographer Terry Dixon looked out from his back deck and took a snap with his phone, before he thought to himself, "It would probably look pretty good from the air."
"I don't know what's good and what's bad [in terms off photos], so I texted the photo to my son and he replied, 'Wow, they are real good,' and that's when I thought I would upload it to Facebook," he said.