gust front vs shelf cloud

[Justin McGinley]

Ok I am going to try to post a video of a gust front or a shelf cloud. Alot of people even I get confused on what the difference is so any help would be great!!! Also this was moving toward me at the time it was taken.

 

[Skip Talbot]

A shelf cloud is a gust front (or marks one). Gust front is a more general term for an outflow boundary, which can be marked by a shelf cloud, a detached roll cloud, or just cloud debris long after the parent storm has passed or died. A shelf cloud is attached to its parent storm and takes on a curtain type appearance.

 

[Justin McGinley]

O i get it now. Thank you skip

 

[Nicholas_Scherber]

skip has done it again! this was always one of those things that i guess i just assumed with out realizing that i didn't really know. thanks for clearing that up.

 

[Jason Foster]

A shelf cloud is a gust front (or marks one). Gust front is a more general term for an outflow boundary, which can be marked by a shelf cloud, a detached roll cloud, or just cloud debris long after the parent storm has passed or died. A shelf cloud is attached to its parent storm and takes on a curtain type appearance.

Simply:
Gust front = the action
Shelf cloud = the form (or formation)

 

[Bob Hartig]

A shelf cloud is also called an arcus cloud, which I think is a pretty cool name! I've used the term "gust front" interchangeably with "shelf cloud," even after I realized the substitution wasn't entirely accurate. Jason put it well. But I'll probably continue to call it a gust front from sheer force of habit.