Impressive shelf cloud in Havana

A spectacular shelf cloud covered the sky of Havana this morning, before downpours and thunderstorms hit the Cuban capital.

The image, captured from the Santo Suárez neighborhood by a citizen identified as Lisette and shared through the Vigilancia Tropical platform, was described by the meteorologist Rubén Capote Bravo as "fantastic and even impressive."

In the photograph, the sky is dominated by a mass of dark gray and greenish-gray clouds, with a layered and undulating structure that covers almost the entire visible horizon. In the background, several multi-story buildings with weathered facades, blue water tanks on the rooftops, and electric wires complete the urban landscape of Havana under the looming threat of the storm.

A shelf cloud is a low, elongated, wedge-shaped formation that belongs to the arcus type. It forms when the cold air brought down by the rain of a mature storm descends to the ground, spreads horizontally, and pushes up the warm, moist air in front of it. As this air condenses, it creates the characteristic horizontal structure that marks the leading edge of the convective system.

Although its appearance is quite intimidating, the shelf cloud is not a tornado: it does indicate, however, intense wind gusts, torrential rain, hail, and electrical activity. Unlike the roll cloud, it remains connected to the parent cloud that generates it and often precedes precipitation, as the gust front travels ahead of the rain core.

The phenomenon occurred in a favorable meteorological context: the forecast for Havana this Saturday indicated up to a 90% chance of rainfall, temperatures ranging from 21 to 27 °C, northeast winds of about 21 km/h, and the possibility of strong storms especially during the early hours of the morning.

October has been an especially rainy month for the capital. In previous episodes of the month, José Martí Airport recorded 71.8 millimeters of rain in just one hour, while some areas of the city accumulated over 300 millimeters in 24 hours.

Capote Bravo, a Cuban meteorologist trained at the Higher Institute of Technologies and Applied Sciences in Havana and currently the head of Meteorology at Telemundo 49 in Tampa, Florida, shared the image on his social media along with credit to its author. The meteorologist's post prompted several users to share their own images of the phenomenon in the comments.

In Cuba, one of the most documented precedents of this type of formation was recorded in Gibara, Holguín, in April 2022, identified by meteorologist Henry Delgado Manzor. The 2026 season has been particularly active with striking convective phenomena, featuring funnel clouds spotted in various provinces such as Matanzas, Pinar del Río, Ciego de Ávila, and Las Tunas throughout the year.

"Fantastic and even impressive shelf cloud this morning in Havana before the onset of heavy rains and thunderstorms," Capote wrote while sharing Lisette's photograph.