A viral video has been bopping around, with scenes like a disaster movie, as beachgoers in Portugal begin to flee the beach when an ominous, tsunami-like cloud begins to crash over the sand. It’s a rare, although natural phenomenon; and naturally, people panicked.
The video comes from Praia de Buarcos, a beach enclave about 88 clicks north from Supertubos and Peniche, where the World Surf League holds their annual Championship Tour contest. And the event happened over the weekend, turning a sunny beach day into a strange, stormy, and panicked scene in a matter of minutes. See the footage below:
“It was nuts to have experienced this rolling cloud in the north of Portugal,” one witness wrote on X, also supplying another angle of the cloud, which is perhaps even scarier, even more unusual than the one in the video above. “Felt like a tsunami out of a movie! Apparently it was 150km long, stretching from Figueira da Foz all the way up to Vila do Conde, which is close to where I was.”
Related: Psychic Predicts Devastating Tsunami on July 5th, 2025
So, what was it?
According to the cloud experts (real thing), it was an Arcus Cloud, also known as a “roll cloud.” For more information, here’s the Cloud Appreciation Society (also a real thing, and side note, how do we join?):
“They form as the cold air that is dragged down by all the precipitation falling within the storm splays outwards upon reaching the ground. As it spreads around the storm, it burrows beneath the warmer, less-dense air at ground level. This is lifted most forcefully in the direction of the cloud’s movement, forming a ‘gust front’, in which the warmer air’s moisture can condense into water droplets that appear as the shelf of cloud.”
Related: 60-Foot Rogue Wave Captured in Pacific Ocean (Video)
Rare Tidal Wave Cloud Creates Panic in Portugal (Video) first appeared on Surfer on Jul 3, 2025
