Rains, thunderstorms, hailstorms and most similar weather instances are pretty common in Pakistan but yesterday’s cloud cover over the capital was a rarity. Accompanied by a storm and hail, the unique type of cloud looked gorgeous across the evening sky of Islamabad.

The social media is still trending with pictures of the beautiful weather phenomena. Trends like #Awesome, #Islamabad, #Isloo and #weather included several people’s comments along with some stunning photography.

Here are few of yesterday’s images and videos, showcasing the unique cloud cover and weather in Islamabad, from the social media:

There was torrential rainfall, extensive hailstorm and stormy winds going up to 60km/h in Islamabad, which left trees and poles uprooted through the region. Which made everyone wonder, is there even a name for the unique weather conditions and clouds witnessed yesterday? The answer is yes. While rare, this type of a weather phenomena is well known to met experts.

Clouds shaped like the one we saw yesterday are referred to as roll clouds (volutus), a rare type of arcus clouds. It is a low horizontal cloud with a cylindrical shape and clouds like these are completely detached from others.

Roll Clouds are solitary and their motion and shape remain the same. Such clouds are sometimes seen in coastal areas, but inland areas like Islamabad can also witness similar shapes when downdrafts occur thanks to thunderstorms. Arcus clouds can sometimes form as accessory clouds to cumulonimbus ones.

On Tuesday, the Roll Cloud was accompanied by a cumulonimbus cloud, which usually brings thunderstorms, hail and gusty winds alongside. It was probably a downdraft due to the cumulonimbus cloud that resulted in the uniquely shaped Roll Cloud.