SAFA Skysailor Magazine

6 SKY SAILOR January | February 2022 by Mike Zupanc Things to do in Burketown: Sit around in the heat, or chase the elusive Morning Glory… This phenomenon that the gulf savannah produces is truly unique. While roll clouds will make an appearance in all sorts of places around the world at various times, the southern Gulf of Carpentaria is the only place in the world where these clouds appear with any regularity. They can be fierce, with strong wind changes, powerful turbulence and a habit of producing ground obscuring fog, they can also produce lines of super smooth lift that go on for hundreds of kilometres – mostly over completely desolate and inaccessible ground mind you, but hundreds of kilometres of lift all the same. But how regular are they? Well, it depends… The wave itself is very common at the right time of year, from late September through to mid-November. I’m writing this on 7 November and the BOM satellite imagery showed another set of waves passing across the southern Gulf country this morning, and a few waves passed through over the last week or so. One slight issue is that as the season gets on, the waves have a habit of arriving earlier – like before dawn – which makes things a bit difficult. This year, 2021, was a good year – there was plenty of moisture, and moisture is the key. The wave system won’t produce the character- istic clouds unless there is high humidity. The old way of forecasting for Morning Glory clouds was to look at how much condensation was forming on your beer glass in the evening. Chasing Outback Glory