anvil cloud

The upper portion of a well-developed cumulonimbus cloud that has reached an altitude at which high lateral winds blow across the top of the cloud, creating a flat anvil shape.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

anvil cloud

anviltop

another name for a cumulonimbus cloud, which tends to be anvil-shaped

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

References in periodicals archive

Additionally, clear air turbulence may be encountered 20 or more miles from the anvil cloud edge." The AC also cautions that hail "may extend to as much as 20 miles from the echo edge."

Twenty Miles? The FAA recommends staying 20 miles away from thunderstorms. Does that include microbursts, virga and gust fronts?

You must avoid not only the precipitation areas by 20 miles, but the anvil cloud formation, too.

Why it's so bumpy

When it grows tall with a flat, spreading top like this, it's often called an anvil cloud. (It's shaped like the iron tool a blacksmith uses.)

Flash! zap! boom!

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