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Photographs of a Microburst Rising Over Phoenix Appear Just Like a Mushroom Cloud

Photos by Jerry Ferguson, with help of pilot Andrew Park.

While helicopter pilot Andrew Park was flying over Phoenix this week, photographer Jerry Ferguson captured what appears to be a giant foreboding mushroom cloud hanging over the city. In actuality the scene is a weather cluster called a “microburst,” a phenomenon that occurs when cooled air from a thunderstorm rushes to the ground and spreads over the land at speeds over 100 miles per hour causing a powerful and centralized air current.

Ferguson captured the sight while filming the weather for a local TV station. A timelapse video by Bryan Snider shows the same microburst from Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport, the camera positioned at what looks like just a couple hundred feet form the center of the storm. (via Mashable)